


The Stars Have All Been Blown Out

by kyuuichan



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Expect mentions of canon relationships, Fix-It of Sorts, Multi, Past Adam/Shiro (Voltron), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, co-Black Paladin!Keith, co-Black Paladin!Shiro, literally everyone from s7 at one point, mentions of an incurable disease, rewrite of s7, that is no longer afflicting the character that had it, will add more tags as i need to, you know the one I mean
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-21
Packaged: 2019-07-06 23:51:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 28,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15896661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyuuichan/pseuds/kyuuichan
Summary: The journey home was going to be a long one. It would be a great time for the team to rest and for Shiro to get to know his new body and abilities. Too bad the universe seems determined to keep them distracted by trying to kill them every other day.This work is on Indefinite Hiatus.





	1. The Road Home

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of janestrider's theory that we almost got a season 7 with Shiro returning as the Black Paladin, before getting the green light on Keith being the Black Paladin. I really liked it, so I decided to write this (with permission)! The original post can be found here:
> 
> https://janestrider.tumblr.com/post/177392187882/the-wolf-the-atlas-and-the-bayard
> 
> This will contain some dialogue from the series. I tried to change it up and focus mostly on original content. Some still snuck in, though. I also shifted the order of the first three episodes to fit with janestrider's theory. This will also contain some things I personally wish had been dealt in the season, but weren't.
> 
> Anyway, hope everyone enjoys! The next part is done, I just need to edit it. Look for it soon(?).

“You should be resting.”

Shiro watched Keith survey the room from where he had been resting the last several hours. The bed was a make shift one, made up of the equivalent of a space-blow-up mattress and some blankets and pillows grabbed at the last minute as everyone was forced to move their lives from the Castle Ship to their lions. Shiro was almost positive Keith wasn’t even the one who had grabbed these necessities, as the Kogane family could have slept on any surface at this point. 

“This meeting is important,” Shiro pointed out, patience keeping any other emotions out of his voice. “Besides, I’m already feeling better.” He’d been making a point of this by sitting up on his own power for the conversation instead of leaning against the wall or laying down.

Keith's spine was ramrod straight with tension. He was clearly worried Shiro was going to overdo it. The older man’s expression softens in the face of it. “Keith, look at me.”

Keith didn’t give any indication he'd heard, continuing with his search.

“Keith, please.”

The younger man finally turned. Shiro took in how tired he was and how hard he’d been trying to hide it. Wondered when Keith had last slept.

Almost asked. Didn’t at the last moment. Instead, he promised, “If I start to get tired, I’ll let you know.” Keith didn't look quite convinced, giving him a suspicious look Shiro knew he deserved. Neither he nor his cloned counterpart had ever been forthcoming with his problems. He’d long since learned there were somethings in life you couldn’t change and it was best to simply accept it. It left him with more energy to focus on the things he _could_ change. 

He was also aware this could be interpreted as shutting other people out of his problems. Adam and Keith had made that very clear over the years. Shiro was never going to be one to complain about his problems, although he could work on being more honest with his well being.

Keith must have seen this resolve in his expression, because his stance relaxed around the edges. “At least let me get you something to sit on.”

Shiro recognized a compromise when he saw one and nodded. Keith went back to his search, finally finding a decent sized, sturdy crate that would allow Shiro to sit without putting him at a serious height difference to the others.

“Mom, can you help me move this one?”

Krolia approached from where she had been silently taking in the exchange. They lifted the crate without much difficulty, although Shiro had no way of knowing if that was because it was actually light weight or if they were just making it look easy. As they worked their way down the Black Lion’s ramp, Shiro carefully extracted himself from the cocoon he’d been resting in. His whole body ached from the battle Haggar had forced his counterpart into and being without his dominant arm was going to take some getting used to. It made moving a challenge. He was able to keep on his feet and follow the mother-son pair out of Black on his own power, but he was definitely moving at a slower pace.

Most of their group were already gathered in the center of the ring their lions had formed when they landed. Pidge was missing, still in her lion. Shiro didn’t have the connection he had with the other lions that he had with Black, but he could still feel Green’s worry. Whatever Pidge was (or wasn’t) hearing from her attempts to contact other members of the Voltron Coalition and Earth, she wasn’t liking it, and that in turn was upsetting Green.

Shiro was tempted to seek her out to check on her. Decided not to when he felt Green reaching out to sooth her. Not wanting to intrude further, he withdrew as much as possible to give them privacy. Over near the growing group, Keith and Krolia had set the crate down and the former was now looking at him with an expectant expression on his face.

“Shiro, it’s good to see you up on your feet,” Allura greeted with a smile as he approached. Her face was a little paler than normal, but she was already compartmentalizing the last several hours to deal with later. He knew how difficult Lotor’s betrayal had been for her. Had felt how deep it cut through their shared bond with Voltron. It had been so hard to trust the Galra Prince, but he had eventually broken down every one of her barriers until he had earned it. He’d almost earned something more. Only for them to learn that Lotor had never really been their ally. Not really.

“It’s good to back.” Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Lance flinched at this. When Shiro turned to look at him, the Blue Paladin appeared to be preoccupied with watching Keith’s Space Wolf prowl the area. The Black Paladin filed the action away, deciding to keep a look out for any other odd behavior.

As he was sitting down, Pidge emerged from her lion. They watched her approach, a slight droop in her shoulders. No good news, then. “Were you able to contact Earth or the Coalition?”

The Green Paladin shook her head. She held up her wrist, a holographic display appearing as she went over her data for what was likely the hundredth time. “I can’t get through to anyone.” She frowned, frustrated. "It doesn’t make any sense. There might be some distortion I’m not picking up on.” She sighed and dismissed the display. “We might need to try again once we’re in the upper atmosphere or off planet entirely.”

Hunk worried his lower lip. “The lions aren’t going to get too far without recharging their power cores. We might get to another planet, but we’ll never make it back to Earth.”

“The battle with Lotor must have severely depleted the Lions.” Sadness crossed Allura’s expression and some of her exhaustion bled through. “If we had the Castle of Lions, we could recharge them, but without it…”

The Paladins and Coran all shared a sympathetic moment of silence. Losing the castle wasn’t just about losing the Lion’s charging center. They’d lost their home. For Allura and Coran, it had been the last piece of their former lives. If Shiro and the others were hurting at the castle’s loss, they could only imagine how hard their Altean family members were taking it.

Pidge’s voice was tentative when she inquired, “Is there another way for the Lions to recharge?”

Her question stirred something within Shiro’s subconscious. It felt like trying to remember a word, having it right on the tip of the tongue, but being unable to remember it no matter how hard he tried. He tried chasing the thought, but it was like trying to catch a leaf floating on the wind.

“Shiro?”

Shiro blinked. The conversation had broken off and everyone was staring him. He realized that in his attempt to remember whatever it was he’d forgotten, he had raised his hand to his temple. Realizing how it must look, he brought the hand down to rest on the crate. Tried to stomp down the embarrassed feeling rising in his chest. “Sorry, it’s nothing.” He added, upon Keith’s suspicious glare, "Honest.” To Coran, he said, "Please, continue."

Coran cleared his throat. “The Lions can recharge naturally given enough time and ambient energy, but that might take _phoebes_.”

Months. They couldn’t just sit around doing nothing for months. Keith, seemingly thinking the same thing, shifted from one foot to the other, unhappy with the news. “There has to be some thing we can do.”

“Well, we are near the Dalterian Belt, home to the element of faunatonium.” Coran crossed his arms as he considered the alternatives. “We might be able to use it as an temporary solution.”

Everyone was thinking it, but Lance beat everyone to asking it: “Faunatonium?” He squinted at the advisor like he thought Coran was just making things up at this point. “How will that charge the power cores?”

Coran grinned and Lance already regretted asking. “Well you see, it involves gluon field fluctuations—”

Lance held up a hand to cut him off. “You know what? Nevermind. Magic or something, sure.”

The older Altean eyed him like he knew it was coming and had just been waiting to see how long the teen was going to last before stopping him. He mostly looked unimpressed with the oversimplification of what was likely a much more complicated process. “Not that far off, actually. We use the element to expand the energy within the cores.” He held his hand up to his chin as he considered the plan seriously. “But first we have to find a yalmor.”

Hunk was looking rather dubiously at the back of his head. “Wait, there are yalmors on some planet near by?”

Coran scoffed like it should be obvious. “How do you think we find the faunatonium? Yalmors have a nose for the stuff.”

“Then our first order of business is to find a planet with Yalmors on it,” Shiro suggested. He turned to Pidge. “Pidge, your lion has the best chance of finding one of these planets. I think it best if Coran went with you to look for one.”

Pidge and Coran nodded. The former adjusted her glasses as she added, “Once we’re above the atmosphere, I should be able to get a better signal.” She didn’t have to say she was going to keep try to reach out to the Coalition, as well.

Lance smiled wistfully at the good news. “Man, I can’t believe we’re finally going home.”

Hunk hugged himself, letting himself imagine it. “I going to hug my parents and never let go.”

Pidge, despite her somber mood moments before, brightened at the prospect of going home. “I can’t wait to see how Dad integrated Altean and Earth technologies.” She brought her hands together, glee raising her voice an octave. “I bet he came up with something amazing! And my mom—” She cut off, a child's fear of their parent's wrath turning her grin into a grimace. She could just imagine what her mother was going to do. It would be loud. “Oh, she’s going to be so mad at me for running away.” Pidge blanched. “I hope I’m not grounded.”

Shiro snorted in amusement. If Colleen was still anything like he remembered, she’d likely grill Pidge into next year all while being relieved her daughter was safe and back in her arms.

Amusement had softened some of the tension from Keith’s features. Out of curiosity, he asked, “How long do you think it will take us to get home?”

Coran had two fingers on one hand up, while a thumb and pinky were up on the other hand. “It will depend on how long it takes to find the faunatonium and how well it charges the lions, but if my calculations are correct…” He put up two more fingers up. “Without the luxury of a worm hole and diminished power cores.” His fingers moved up and down on both hands as he did the math in his head. “Let’s see, carry the one…” The light went on. “Ah! It’s gonna take us approximately 150,000 Earth years!”

Shiro nearly fell off his seat and a gasp of horror rose from the group (and was that Lance’s very soul escaping??).

“150,000 years?!” Keith demanded, not certain he'd heard that correctly.

Pidge was horrified, but for a different reason. “Coran, I think your finger counting is a little off.” She held her index finger and thumb an inch apart from each other to illustrate this. “It’s going to be something closer to two or three years if we can get the lions up to at least half power. Maybe less. I won't know until we find the faunatonium.”

The group groaned. Two or three years was significantly better than 150,000 years, but it still wasn’t optimal. Shiro coughed and righted himself back on the crate. “Why don’t we leave the question of how long it will take us to get home until we find the yalmors and the faunatonium?”

Lance and Hunk nodded in emphatic agreement, while Coran paused to rethink his math. “Oh, I didn’t carry the three.”

“It’s going to be a long and very difficult journey.” And wasn’t that like Allura, thinking of the bigger picture? “But it’s our only chance of replacing the Castle of Lions.”

Shiro didn’t like to let himself think about it too often (what was the point when there was a bigger picture to think about?), but the others weren’t the only ones feeling homesick. He didn’t know what kind of life was waiting for him back on Earth or what he’d even do with himself once he got there. It wasn't an option he'd seriously considered until now. “There were times I didn’t think I’d see Earth again.” The words slipped out before he meant them too. “To be able to go back—”

Lance, caught up in his own excitement, burst out: “Well, what are we waiting for guys? Let’s find ourselves a yalmor and get this space trip on the road!”

Krolia, who’d seemed content to listen until now, pointed out, “We’ll have to decide who is riding with who.”

“Coran is riding with Pidge.” Keith gestured to his mother. “The Black Lion is the biggest, so it can easily take myself, my mother, Shiro, and the wolf. Hunk, you can take the cow.”

Hunk wasn’t thrilled with this. “I don’t think that would be such a good idea. Can’t I take Romelle or the mice?”

Lance placed his hands on his hips. “Yeah, Hunk and the cow isn’t such a great idea.”

Allura rolled her eyes. “I’ll take the cow if I can take the mice.”

Hunk, only wanting to get out of taking the cow and not caring about anything else, held out a hand. The two shook on it as if they were making some huge pact. “Deal.”

Lance thought his buddy was missing out, but didn’t really care either, because that meant: “And Romelle can ride with me!”

Romelle, not knowing Lance well enough to realize he had alternative motives, simply shrugged.

Pidge raised her hand. "I'm keeping the caterpillars. This is not a discussion." The last part was said with a look that practically screamed she was just daring anyone to be stupid enough to tell her she couldn't keep her little companions.

Shiro shook his head at the whole lot of them. Even if he wasn’t already beginning to drag a little, he’d forgotten how energetic this bunch could be. “If that’s settled, I think we should follow Lance’s advice and get to the lions.” Lance made a show of preening at the acknowledgement. Shiro didn’t miss how it didn’t reach his eyes. He’d definitely have to try and talk with the teen at some point. “The faster we get going and find a yalmor, the faster we can get home.”

Each of the group set off to prepare their lions. Some rearranging of the animals was going to be necessary: mainly getting Kalternecker from Lance’s lion into Allura’s. Considering Allura and Romelle were helping out this time, it was likely going to take much less time than it had during the evacuation of the Castle of Lions.

A hand appeared on Shiro’s shoulder. It was light enough not to be oppressive, but still enough to feel. Keith then.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Definitely Keith.

This mother henning would get tiring after a while if it carried on. For now however, Shiro reminded himself that he had scared Keith rather badly (telling someone you’d died would do that) and this was simply Keith's way of dealing with it. He would back off soon.

The older Paladin reached up and gave the younger Paladin’s hand a squeeze. “It was nothing, really. Just trying to remember something.”

Keith tilted his head. “From your time with the Black Lion?”

Shiro nodded, frowning. “It seemed important, but I can’t remember.” He shrugged. “It’ll come back to me when it’s necessary.”

Black nuzzled his consciousness in agreement. It was important, but not dire. They had time to let him remember. She’d remind him, if it came down to it.

Through his own link with Black, Keith could also feel her (and to a lesser extent, Shiro's) reassurance. While he was used to feeling one of the Lions, like a silent constant presence in the back of his mind, Shiro’s warm steady presence was taking some getting used to.

Joining the pair, Krolia gestured to the crate. “Keith, I can take the crate in.” The two locked eyes, something passing between them. “This looks like the right time.”

Keith nodded and Shiro looked back and forth between the two. The right time? Despite his confusion, Shiro stood to allow the Blade member to take the crate. He was a bit envious when she lifted it with ease, the awkwardness only coming from it’s size. He watched her make her way over to the Black Lion for several moments, before raising an eyebrow at Keith. “The right time for what, exactly?”

Nervous wasn’t the right word for the emotion coming off the younger man, but it was close enough. Reaching down to his thigh, Keith summoned the Black Bayard from were it was stored when it wasn’t needed. Looking Shiro straight in the eye, he offered it to Shiro. “You should have this back.”

“Keith…” A memory of them doing this before rose from the muddle of the clone’s memories. The hope, the worry, and then the cut of being rejected. He knew he wouldn’t be rejected this time, nor ever again, but he still didn’t want to usurp Keith’s role within the group.

The Red Paladin in question, knowing him all too well, rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Shiro, you’re the Black Lion’s true paladin. I’ll pilot her until you’re recovered, but we both know she’s waiting for you.”

In response, the Black Lion reached out to both. This was not a rejection of Keith. This was a promise of things to come, when the time was right. Shiro could see the hints of it, but not the full picture. Seeing no point in arguing with them, when both were in agreement, Shiro caved. Still, “Why don’t you hang on to that until it’s time? I doubt I’ll be doing any fighting just yet.”

Keith seemed suddenly unable to look Shiro in the eye. He continued to hold the Bayard out. “Just, take it. Please. You’ll understand.”

Shiro’s other eyebrow rose to meet it's twin. He could see that this was important, even if he couldn't see why. Not certain what to expect, Shiro took the Bayard.

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen. Then, like the other Bayards had that first day they’d been received, the Black Bayard began to glow. Rather than simply transforming into a weapon, like they had for the others, his Bayard suddenly attached itself to the stub of his arm.

Nerves came alive as the Bayard overrode the old connections left behind by the original Galra prosthetic. Shiro gasped, startled, and his other hand rose to his shoulder on instinct. Painful wasn't the word for the sensation crawling up his nervous system. It felt like ants and energy and potention. It was over in seconds, leaving Shiro panting like he’d run a marathon. What was that?!

"Shiro?! Shiro, are you okay? I'm sorry, I didn't think it would--" Keith sounded like he was more than halfway to a panic attack.

The Black Paladin cut him off by holding up his left hand. He just needed a moment. Both Keith (physically) and Black (mentally), hovered worriedly throughout, both assuring without wanting to crowd him. He drew strength from them, working up the nerve to see what exactly the Bayard had done to him.

Where the remains of the clone’s Galra prosthetic had been a grey, corrupt reminder of what the clone and Shiro had survived was now an arm of sleek white and black. It didn’t quite look like his arm had appeared when he had been wearing his armor, but it was close. Intuitively, as if an instruction manual had been downloaded into his head to go with the arm, Shiro lit the hand up. Instead of the sickly purple of before, the hand lit up a familiar, soothing Altean blue. It faded back to normal with a mere thought.

Wide-eyed, Shiro turned to Keith for answers. The younger man didn’t look surprised, although he didn’t look happy for the distress the process had caused. “This was something I saw when mom and I were in the abyss.”

_Time moves differently where we were._

“You saw the future?” There was a dark suspicion rising in the back of his mind. “Did you know about--?”

Keith slowly nodded, clearly miserable. Shiro’s heart broke for him. How long had he carried that with him? Shiro reached out, only hesitating for a moment when he instinctively reached with his dominant arm, and lay his hand on Keith’s shoulder. Shiro was amazed he could actually feel body heat, albeit muffled. It would be interesting to look into later. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.”

Keith shook his head. “No!” Stepping into Shiro’s personally space, he poked a finger at Shiro’s chest, even though they both knew he couldn’t feel it through the chest plate. “That was not your fault.” He paused, considered, then added, “Or his fault, either.” He looked like he wanted nothing more than to track down a certain witch and give her a piece of his mind. 

Anguish that did and didn’t feel like Shiro’s own came unbidden. The clone had been so horrified by what Haggar had forced him to do, that he could ever be forgiven was a foreign concept. Shiro knew that Keith had never blamed him, took the certainty to sooth the ache. He was so proud of how the younger man had handled the situation, even if that conviction scared him. When he smiled, it was with his usual warmth. “I know. But it still couldn’t have been a pleasant experience.”

Keith crossed his arms, almost pouting. “It was certainly clear you’ve definitely been holding back on us.”

Shiro laughed like it had been surprised out of him. “The next time I’ll take all of you more seriously.” He patted Keith on the shoulder, beginning to lead him towards the Black Lion. “You’ll get to explain to the other’s why training suddenly got more intensive.” He laughed again at the disgruntled expression on Keith’s face as he was obviously imagining how well that would (or rather, wouldn’t) be received.

Krolia didn’t bat an eye at the new arm as they approached, suggesting that whatever Keith had seen, she had seen as well. Shiro didn’t know what it said that she had seen him attacking her son and had still allowed him anywhere near said son. Trust in Keith? Confidence in his skills? Acceptance of events they couldn’t change? He had so many questions, but wasn’t sure how to ask them.

Judging from the projections on how long this journey was likely going to take, he would have time to figure out how to ask.

Over the coms, Hunk was reporting in, “Hunk, ready to go.” The Yellow Lion came alive along the bond in response, tired but ready.  
Allura was the next to check in. “Allura and the mice ready to go.” She paused, a little uncertain as she added, “And the cow.” Over the coms, the mice squeaked reassurances. 

“Pidge—” “—And Coran!” “…Ready to go.” 

Green and Blue came on line together, followed shortly by Red.

“Romelle and I are heading out, who’s coming with us?”

Last to join them was Black. Keith wrapped his hands around the controls, glancing back at Shiro and Krolia. It felt odd to be behind the seat, rather than in it, but Shiro merely smiled encouragingly in reponse. At his feet, the wolf was curled up like a wall of warmth against his calves.

“Keith, Krolia, Shiro and the wolf, ready.”

Lift off was slow, but steady, and it wasn’t long before the whole group was up and outside the planet’s orbit. Once they were all safely outside the planet’s gravity, Pidge and Coran got to work looking for any nearby planets with their prized yalmor. Over the coms, their voices were a stream of conversation consisting of suggestions, discards, and more suggestions. It wasn’t until the were nearly at the edge of the solar system, that a triumphant sound came from the Green Lion.

“We found one!” Pidge exclaimed. A visual popped up on all of their screens, as she transmitted over the data. “The planet is on the edge of the belt, but it’s been known to have plenty of yalmors. It’ll take about a week to get there at our present speed, but we should be able to get there long before we run out of power.”

“Thanks for that wonderful thought, Pidge,” Lance contributed sarcastically. “I really didn’t want to think about potentially dying in space any more than I already do.”

“Your welcome, Lance,” Pidge responded, blatantly ignoring his sarcasm.

Coran took over the coms. “Oh! We should try some of your Earth games!” He leaned over Pidge to peer out into the area. “I spy with my little eye, something that begins with ‘ _plexis_!’”

Resigned to the banter, Shiro pointed out, “Coran, we don’t know the Altean alphabet.”

He really should have known not to encourage the advisor, because next thing they knew, Allura, Coran, and Romelle were attempting to rope them into learning the Altean alphabet. Part of Shiro was fascinated over the fact that it appeared alphabet songs were universal, but mostly he just regretted ever opening his mouth.

Under the chorus of singing, Pidge was making another call to their allies. “This is Pidge, Green Paladin of Voltron Lion, calling the Voltron Coalition. Do you read me? Over.”

She waited until the singing came to an end, before trying again on a higher frequency. “I repeat, this is the Green Paladin and part of the Voltron Coalition, if you can hear me, please respond.”

Everyone strained their ears to listen, however no response came. Allura was sympathetic as she offered, “Would you like Blue and I to try broadcasting the signal?”

Pidge shook her head, even though no one but Coran could see her do it. “Our power levels are probably messing with the range. I’ll keep trying, but it might not work until we get the faunatonium.”

Coran was a wall of reassurance behind her, something she was grateful for.

Krolia leaned over Keith’s shoulder, inspecting the flight path to their chosen planet. She pointed to a system just outside their path. “That’s the Klii-nyn system. There’s a Blade of Memora rally point located on one of the moons here.” She brought up the exact moon in question. “We should check in with them and get an update on their operations.”

“Pidge.” Keith transmitted the information back to the Green Paladin. “We think we should make a pit stop here.”

Pidge considered the distance. She went over her calculations for their current supplies and the power core levels. “It’ll add a few days to our journey, but we should be fine make it there.”

Everyone more or less weren’t concerned, just as long as they didn’t run out of power in the mean time. Destination set, the group set their course and took off in the direction of the Klii-Nyl system.

The next few days were preoccupied with flying and anything they could do to pass the time. Pidge had set up a video game that used her dash as the ultimate video screen. She and Coran could be heard playing the game into the late hours of the day cycle they'd set up, much to Lance’s very vocal jealousy. 

Lance had quickly learned that Romelle was not the Lion-House-Guest he’d thought she’d be and she had already somehow doused him several time with Flame retardant. Once, she’d nearly sent them careening into a meteor, at which point she finally reigned in her curiosity and left the Red Lion’s controls alone. Lance kept shooting her distrustful glares, which she ignored.

Shiro took the time to rest, catch up with Keith, and get to know Krolia. He still couldn’t believe that while six months had passed for the rest of the group, two whole years had passed for them. There wasn’t much to tell about those two years, beyond the wild stories of the indigenous life they’d found on the back of a space whale (because why not?), but Shiro still found Keith’s failed attempts to train his new canine friend amusing.

Krolia was a wall of silent support with a mischievous streak hiding under her strong sense of duty. Shiro was honored to discover she was already incorporating him into her sense of family and they were quickly bonding over their shared desire to look after Keith. Keith became flustered the first time they tag teamed him into taking a break. “The Black Lion can handle flying on her own for a few hours, get some sleep.”

Neither of them ever spoke about any other future events, however. “We can’t be sure when or if they’ll still happen,” Krolia explained. She passed Shiro a cup of almost-tea, pulled from the stock Hunk had managed to pass along to them during one of their breaks to distribute food amongst the group.

He accepted it, cradling the cup and letting the warmth soak in. “How many of these events did you see?”

She shrugged, not giving him anything to work with. It was slightly frustrating. 

Keith derailed the conversation when he pointed at Shiro’s hands. “You’ve been doing that a lot. Can you feel with…” He pointed a little more obviously at the Bayard hand.

The man paused, looking down at his hands. It was easy to forget, just looking at them like this, that one wasn’t the prosthetic he'd had since escaping the Galra, even when he was acutely aware of every sensation he got from it. “Yeah, it’s muffled, but it’s sensitive to touch.” He flexed it, marveling at it’s strength. It wasn’t as strong as the Galra prosthetic, but the trade off of being able to feel on that side certainly made up for it. “Cold, hot, they’re both there.”

Keith leaned forward. “Can you feel texture?”

Shiro hadn't even thought to try.

They spent the rest of the evening testing out if he could tell rough from smooth things. Keith was constantly on the look out to see if he was pushing too hard or too much, but Shiro was caught up in his curiosity at the exploration. It was rare he got to indulge in some harmless exploration and he wanted to enjoy it. He only called it a day when they had worked through everything on board Black and it was way past time they should have gotten some shut eye.

At night, Shiro dreamt of stars and distant planets and things he never remembered in the morning.

It was all just starting to feel like routine, until, a day out from their first destination, Shiro woke up and didn’t recognize the ceiling above him.  
  
Shiro’s whole body seized, the only thing keeping him from panicking being that the ceiling looked enough like the Black’s cargo hold to recognize it as inside of one of the Lions. Slowly, he tilted his head to get a better look at the area around him, the familiar tint of the lights doing little to comfort him.

It slowly sank in that the lights were yellow. He was in the Yellow Lion? How had he gotten into the Yellow Lion? Had he been moved while he was asleep? How had they not woken him up? Why would they have moved him rather than simply waking him up and then asking him to move? Had something happened?

Too many questions and he wasn’t going to get them just laying there on the floor of the hold. Grimacing at the way his body protested his little nap on a hard surface, he gingerly got to his feet and made his way around Hunk’s things to the entrance of the cockpit.

As he approached, loud frantic voices reached his ears.

“What do you mean he’s gone?!” Lance’s voice, sounding furious with an undertone of fear. “How did you manage to lose him!?”

Keith’s sputter was audible through the speakers. “I didn’t lose him! He wasn’t there when I woke up!”

“That’s the definition of losing someone!”

“Lance! Keith! Please, arguing doesn’t help anything.” Allura was trying to regain control of the situation. “Keith, have you searched every where on the Black Lion?”

There was a pause as Keith conversed with Krolia. When he came back, he sounded stressed. “We searched everywhere.”

Pidge, sounding reluctant to go there, but willing to do it anyway, asked: “Is his helmet still there?”

A longer pause, then: “What kind of question is that?! Of course he didn’t leave!”

“I don’t know! I was just asking!”

Shiro stepped into the cockpit to see Hunk squirming in his seat, clearly ready to crumble into an anxiety attack. “Oh man, what if this is like last time, and he just disappeared again? What if he's gone for good, this time?”

A horrified silence fell over the coms.

Shiro, unable to allow this to carry on any longer, cleared his throat. “It’s okay, everyone, I’m right here.”

Hunk nearly leapt onto the consul in front of him, screaming. “OH MY GOD IT’S A GHOST. SHIRO’S A GHOST AND HE’S HAUNTING MY LION.”

Chaos broke out on the coms, everyone shouting at once.

“Shiro? Hunk! Is Shiro in your Lion?”

“How did he get into Hunk’s lion?”

“Shiro, are you okay? Say something!”

The Black Paladin waited for the noise to die down, cautiously approaching Hunk like it would a terrified animal. The Yellow Paladin continued to gape at him, and then at the hand Shiro reached out to place on his shoulder. He looked torn between his terror and his confusion over Shiro having another arm all of a sudden. “It’s okay, Hunk. I’m not a ghost.” _At the moment._

An image of Keith popped up on the dash. He would have lept right through the screen if such a thing were possible. “Shiro?”

Shiro waved, keeping up the calm reassuring front. “I’m okay, everyone. I woke up in Yellow's cargo hold a few minutes ago.” He frowned down at Hunk, who had taken a seat again and was looking back at him in just as much confusion. “I thought you guys moved me or something.”

Hunk shook his head hard enough to nearly give himself whiplash. “Nu-uh. Not us. We’d never do that to you, unless we had to.”

Shiro gave his shoulder a pat to show his appreciation, but it didn’t answer the big question: how had he gotten onto the Yellow Lion?

Pidge spoke up for the first time since her first comment. “Could this be a Black Lion thing? The Black Lion can teleport and Shiro did spend a year in her.”

As if she knew she was being talked about, the Black Lion reached out to him, guilty but proud. Shiro got the feeling she was trying to apologize while being proud of him for accomplishing a difficult task. He reached for her, reached for their connection, and knew that she hadn’t moved him.

He had teleported himself. On accident. “Guys, I think… I think I did this.”

Another pause, followed by Lance’s excited questioning. “Hey, does that mean we could all gain our lion’s abilities? I could totally be a fire bender!”

Shiro didn’t need to have a visual to know Keith was rolling his eyes at their team mate. “I think it’s just a Shiro thing.”

Lance’s pout was somehow just as audible.

The Black Paladin tuned them out, focusing inward to the connection that ran between himself and the Black Lion. What was once a slowly growing thread was now a full blown two way connection. Teleporting was the least of the things she had to offer, but it was all he could handle. Reaching for the ability, imagining being back in her cargo hold, he briefly caught the beginnings of Hunk’s startled gasp before it was cut off. When he opened his eyes, Shiro was back in the Black Lion’s cargo hold. Exactly where he’d imagined being. This… This could be useful.

It was also exhausting, as he discovered moments later. His legs gave out under him and he slid to the floor, simply content to sit there and catch his breathe.

The sound of stomping feet came down the ramp. Keith appeared a moment later, eyes wide and half wild. He froze upon seeing Shiro.

Shiro, without thinking, lifted an arm out, beckoning him over. The younger man came without having to be told twice, throwing his arms around broad shoulders the moment he could.

“Stop doing that!” Keith arms tightened around him, like he could stop him from disappearing if he held on tightly enough. “Or at least warn us! You gave Hunk a heart attack.”

Oh, he only gave _Hunk_ a heart attack, did he?

Shiro hugged Keith back, rubbing his back until the trembling stopped. “I’m sorry I scared you.” He had the grace to feel guilty. Made sure it was audible in his voice. “I didn’t expect that to work.”

The Red Paladin pulled away. His face was dry, but his eyes were red. Shiro reached up and rested his hand on the back of Keith’s neck. “Hey, talk to me.”

Keith dropped his head down onto Shiro’s shoulder, all the tension flooding out of his body. He said something, but it was too muffled to hear. “What?”

“I thought we’d lost you again.”

If it were physically possible, Shiro was sure his heart would have broken. This was war. Any promise he could make wouldn’t be one he could guarantee. They had already learned that first hand. The universe had allowed them this victory, for him to come back, but there was no promise it would happen again.

A wet nose forced itself in between them before he could think of a responce. The wolf, intuitively noting that his companion was upset, was trying to provide his own comfort. Without lifting his head, Keith patted him on the head, murmuring, “Good boy.”

“You might want to reassure your friends you’re not dead.”

Shiro looked over to where Krolia was watching them from the wall she was leaning against. He hadn’t even heard her come down. Realizing she was right, Shiro patted Keith’s head. “Come on, the others are waiting for us.” 

Keith groaned, like he was more than content to just sit there for a few more minutes. Eventually, he dragged himself to his feet, face still a little pale, but other wise beginning to look himself again. 

Shiro really did hope the universe would stop throwing curve balls at them for a little bit, if only for Keith’s sake.

The remainder of the trip to the Klii-Nyl system was spent answering questions about his new ability ( _No, Pidge, I didn’t know I could do this before. No, I don’t think I can do another demonstration just yet. Maybe tomorrow_ ) and the arm, which it turned out he'd forgotten to mention to anyone. Thankfully, they arrived at their destination before the team could come up with anything more to do with this new ability than transport Hunk’s freshly made food between the group, rather than haphazardly having him deliver it by hand each time. 

Shiro was secretly too amused by Keith being offended (“Shiro is not a delivery boy!”) to actually be offended for himself.

Krolia punched in the frequency for the base, moving around the controls like she was a Paladin herself. Shiro was impressed over how fast she picked everything up, considering she hadn’t had the learning curve of being bonded with the Lions. “Hailing Zailox Station, please respond.”

Static greeted her hail, like it had been greeting all of their hails. It was beginning to give Shiro the feeling they were actually alone in the universe.  
She raised the frequency and tried again. “I repeat, Zailox station, please respond.”

No answer. A heavy silence fell over the group as they touched down. There was no sign of life coming from the station and it really wasn’t doing anything to abate that Alone In the Universe feeling.

The lions settled. Shiro opened a channel to the other Paladins. “Krolia, take Keith and the others down to the base and check for signs of life.”

Keith peered up at him over his shoulder. “What are you going to do?”

Be honest. “I don’t think I’ll be much help if there’s an attack. That teleporting trick took more out of me than I thought it would.” He gave Keith a reassuring smile. “I’ll keep an eye out for any threats out here. If we’re here long term, I’ll come join you then.”

Keith agreed, but was reluctant to leave him. Shiro nearly had to usher him out the Lion. The moment Keith and the others descended on to the base’s front entrance, Shiro dropped down into the Black Lion’s seat with a relieved sigh. Black instantly reached for him as he reached for her, both content to rest and wait for the others.

Down below, Allura forced the doors open. She held them apart as Krolia and her fellow Paladins slipped in around her. The base was dark and empty, the only light coming in through the open doors. Pidge tried pressing a button on the consul, only for nothing to happen. 

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here for years.” Keith landed on the walkway leading into the base from the front entrance, taking in the sheer silence of the place. If anyone were here, surely they would have come to greet them by now.

Pidge was having no luck bringing up the power. “I can’t get the system to boot. Looks like power has been out for a while.”

The whole place was giving Hunk the heebie-jeebies. “If the Blade of Mamora abandoned this place, something terrible must have happened.”

Krolia frowned. If that were the case, where were the signs of battle? “That’s impossible. This place was fully operational during my last check in.” Sure, that had been two years for her, but it should have only been a few months for the rest of the universe. The back up generators wouldn’t have gone dead in six months. 

Outside, Black’s sensors began picking up ships nearing the base, the alarms rousing Shiro from the doze he’d fallen into. Laser fire rained down around them, nearly sending him tumbling out of his seat. Diving for the coms, he shouted, “Keith! Paladins! Enemy ships are firing on the base! Get back to the lions!”

Mere moments later, the others shot out of the base, each making a bee line for their Lions. There was a terrifying moment where Shiro watched with bated breath, the group vulnerable while they made their way to back to the lions. He didn’t release the breathe until Keith appeared in the cockpit, Krolia on close on his heels.

They took to the air, just in time to spot a fleet passing by them over head. “It looks like a small fleet,” Keith observed. “Mostly Galra fighters.”  
Lance’s voice chimed over the coms, not confident or relieved exactly, but somewhere in between. “Good, we could use a break right now. They should be easy to take out.”

Pidge winced as a shot barely missed her lion, sending Coran tumbling to the floor of the cockpit. “Remember! We’re not at full power! I don’t know if we have the power to take on this many ships.”

The Black Lion dodged what would have been a nasty shot if it had hit them. “Pidge is right, stay sharp everyone.”

To Shiro, Keith shouted, “Shiro, we need you to move some people around!”

Shiro clung to the back of the pilot’s seat, nearly losing his footing. “What?”

Keith gritted his teeth and banked hard around an asteroid. Black cleared the floating rock, but one of his pursuers did not. “I didn’t know how they moved around, but in the last vision I saw, we were running from Galra fighters. Coran was in here, Romelle was with Allura, and you were with Pidge.” Another close call nearly sent Black into a spin. “I think this is that fight! It’s really important you all are in those lions.”

Exhaustion from the last time he’d jumped still sat heavy in his bones, but Black assured him she would take the strain if she let him. Shiro reached for her, guilty to be all but stealing her power when she was so low herself. 

With the Black Lion’s support, the jump to the Green Lion was infinitely easier. Coran started when Shiro placed a hand on his shoulder, blinking in confusion as they transported from Green to Black. He gave the advisor a quick salute as he jumped to Red to retrieve Romelle and drop her off with Allura.

Romelle, bless her soul, didn’t even blink. She merely peered over Allura’s shoulder and said, “Some of these ships look like Lotor’s.”

Shiro heard Allura’s, “How did you get here??” before transporting himself back to Green. Pidge jumped when he settled in next to her, easing his drain on the Black Lion.

“Mind if I join you?” He smiled down at her, as if this was all perfectly normal.

Pidge gaped up at him. “Um, sure? This is going to be a bumpy ride.”

She wasn’t exaggerating either. There were simply too many fighters for them to take on, and there was no telling how much trouble they’d be in if a cruiser showed up. “We’re getting our butts handed to us!” Lance called out as Hunk was nearly captured by some Galra cruisers with cables that could imbed themselves in the lions. “We need to form Voltron!”

Even as he suggested it, Shiro knew it wasn’t going to work. Black, and to a lesser extent the other lions, rang out that they simply didn’t have enough power. In their weakened state, any attempt to form Voltron was more likely to harm the lions then help the group. “Negative, guys. The Lions simply don’t have enough power to form Voltron.”

Without Voltron, they were out numbered and out gunned. That left only one other option: They needed to run. Something that turned out to be easier said then done, they quickly learned when an explosion seemingly out of nowhere sent the Green Lion careening. If Shiro hadn’t been holding onto Pidge’s seat, he likely would have been sent head over heels all over the cock pit.

A chorus of “Pidge!” and “Shiro!” came from the others. Pidge righted the Green Lion, taking a deep breathe as she did so. “We’re alright!”

Another series of explosions sent Red and Yellow into a spin. There didn’t appear to be anything in front of them, but they were clearly hitting _something_. “What was that?” Lance asked, shaken.

Over in the Black Lion, Coran brought up a map of the area. The Black Lion’s sensors were picking up the energy signals being given off by what they were hitting, even if the naked eye couldn’t see them. “Xanthorium Crystals.” He swallowed, perturbed. These things were nasty buggers. “And they’ve been cloaked.”

The Galra fighters opposing them seemed to have no trouble avoiding the dangerous booby traps, setting them off all around them. Three more ships suddenly combined their attacks to form a much stronger, deadly laser beam that nearly took the Green Lion out, while another ships attack broke up into smaller beams to nearly take out the Yellow Lion.

Hunk was understandably worried. “I’ve never seen the Galra use these kinds of weapons before.” He glanced at the readings of the area around him, narrowly missing setting off a chain of crystals. “They’re not using any Galra patterns either.”

Lance came up beside him, sticking close to avoid the crystals. “They have us boxed in! There’s crystals all around us, these pirates behind us, and a cyclone blocking our exit.”

Keith didn't like their options, but they had no choice. “Everyone, into the cyclone.” He brought the Black Lion in closer to the Yellow Lion. “Hunk, we’re going to have to punch a hole for the other’s.” His tone softened as much as the situation allowed. “Ready?”

Hunk tightened his hands around his controls. “As I’ll ever be.”

It wasn’t a real solution, however. The winds from the cyclone caused the lions to creak and shake dangerously and they were never going to make it through safely. “Guys, the lions can’t take much more of this!” Lance didn’t sound too happy about it either.

“Everyone, scan for anything we can use for cover.” Keith struggled to keep Black on course. “We need some place we’d have the advantage.”  
Pidge was already one step ahead, her scanners having picked up a planet almost right below them. “There’s a volcanic ice planet near by. It has geysers, ice tunnels, and a dangerously unstable core. You’d have to be insane to go there.” She shot Shiro a near evil grin. “It’s perfect.”

Keith banked the Black Lion for the coordinates the moment they came through. “Everyone, let’s do this!”

The others followed closely behind. They broke through the upper atmosphere, heading straight for the planets surface, just in time for several dozen ships to break the cloud bank right behind them. 

This time, the Voltron team were the one’s leading the Galra fighters on a merry chase. They managed to lose a few to the geysers and unstable ice structures, but there were still quite a few on their tail. This is when Keith spotted a cave up ahead. “Lance, take up the rear. When everyone enters the cave, shoot the entrance. Red should be fast enough to get in before the entrance is blocked off.”

Lance fell back with a, “Rodger that, team leader.” The group could hear him murmuring, “Alright, here we go,” as they each passed through the entrance. The moment the others were clear, the loud sound of an explosion rocked the cave, followed by the near deafening sound of huge boulders taking out numerous fighters.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to take all of them out. “Some still made it through!” Lance shouted as Red caught up with Black and Green.

“Everyone, split up!” Black took a left, Red and Green right behind. Yellow and Blue took the right tunnel. All too quickly, Green and Red were separated from Black, as they were forced to take different tunnels. 

The ship chasing after Black shot a zip line down to connect itself with the Lion. The ship was quickly lost, but not before it’s passenger landed on Black’s back.

Coran pulled up the image of the intruder on the dash. “They’re trying to get in!”

Krolia turned to head for the escape hatch. “I’ll take care of them.”

“Wait!” She paused at her son’s shout, turning to see him holding out their Blade to her. “Take this.”

Coran, eager to help, went after her as she headed for the holds below. “I’ll help!”

He didn’t make it far. An unexpected turn from Black sent him tumbling into a cargo hold. 

Which locked behind him. “Hello? Krolia? Keith? Anyone!?” 

The blade was a comforting weight in Krolia's hand and even though she’d only used it once since she’d left it on Earth all those years ago, it was like she’d never parted with it. It was easy to fall back into fighting with it. 

She lured the opposing fighter near to the edge of the entrance of the hanger and then put the blade in his gun. She retrieved it as she launched herself up on top of the Black Lion, engaging the pirate in a one-on-one that was made all the more treacherous by the hanging stalactites around them. The pirate was skilled, but he made the worst mistake he could have in their situation: he failed to pay attention to his surroundings. She left him to run smack dab into a stalactite for his reward.

In another tunnel, Hunk’s persistent attacker forced him to the floor of the tunnel, scratching Yellow up rather good in the process. Furious for the damage to his lion and friend, Hunk came out gun literally blazing. His weapon of choice was made for heavy hits, and while this strategy would never work on multiple fighters, it could take out one. His tenaciousness was rewarded, his Bayard responding by transforming to including torrents, which added even more destructive force to his attacks. The fighter didn’t stand a chance.

One cocky fighter thought it was a good idea to try and take Blue on from the front. Allura was so insulted by the stupidity, she didn’t even bother with her weapons. Blue merely ate the fighter (or the equivalent of it). The ship crumpled like paper in Blue’s jaws. It was a pity that wasn’t enough to end it, however, as the pilot was still alive. Romelle being with Allura proved to be invaluable, as the Lion’s jaws were stuck together and her heightened Altean strength made it easy for her to free the part. In short work, they had dispatched of their annoying attacker.

“Is everyone okay?” Keith called out as his mother rejoined him in the cockpit. Caught up in the heat of battle, he didn’t notice that Coran had failed to rejoin them.

Hunk and Allura sounded off. They were both okay. 

“Well, we’re not!” Lance’s voice was near shrill with his attempts not to panic. The three fighters on their tail just would not lay off. “Pidge and I need help!”

Pidge was much more calm, but only slightly so. “We can’t shake these fighters and these tunnels are too narrow for us to maneuver properly.”  
Keith found them on a scan of the area. The tunnels rejoined further up. If they could hold out a little longer, he’d be able to help out. “I see your location! We’re headed your way.”

It didn’t seem the fighters had any plans of allowing them to get to their allies. If Keith and Hunk’s pursuers were persistent, these three were dedicated. They hounded Pidge and Lance through the tunnels, not seeming to care if they brought down the tunnel around them in the process of trying to shoot them down.

“What can we do?” Lance was nearing his panic point. He could practically see himself or Pidge getting shot down any second now and he was beginning to tire from the constant vigilance. “You usually have good ideas!”

Shiro was sent to the floor as a shot came far too close in an undignified heap. The same blast nearly dislodged Pidge from the controls. Her iron grip was all that kept her in her seat. “I don’t know! My cannon isn’t operational!”

Shiro knew they couldn’t keep this up. There’s was too much tunnel to cover for the others to reach them and those fighters’ shots were getting far too close. He studied the readings of the distance between the lions and their attackers. Perhaps he could take advantage of their close quarters.

He pushed himself to his feet. “I have an idea.” The next moment, he was gone.

Pidge groaned. “Forget my mother. Keith is going to kill me.”

Hearing his name, the Red Paladin asked, “What was that?”

“I think Shiro just transported over to one of the Galra ships following us.”

“HE DID WHAT?”

A bright flash of light forced one of the Galra pirates to shield his eyes. When he lowered his arm, there was a large figure on his dashboard who had appeared out of nowhere. Shiro smiled pleasantly and waved with his left hand, while driving his prosthetic through the consul, thoroughly taking out the navigation system. By the time the pilot recovered from the shock, the out of control ship had careened right into the ship behind it. Shiro was already out and moving onto the last fighter long before then.

This last fighter wasn’t necessarily better prepared, so much as he was infinitely more trigger happy. The idiot was so startled he began firing directly into the front hatch of his own ship. Shiro threw himself out of the way, too stunned by the stupidity to immediately think to teleport away as the pilot destroyed his own ship. 

For all the pilot was clearly not a trained Galra soldier, even if the uniform and fighting style wasn’t a dead give away, unfortunately, he was lucky in one regard: his shots were so every where, one did actually manage to hit the target. Shiro grunted as he took a shot to the side. It was clear there wasn’t anything more he could do here. The pilot had done all the damage for him, and if he stayed, it was likely the pilot would take them both down. With the last of the energy he could muster, he transported himself back to Green.

Pidge’s voice was distant and alarmed. “Shiro?!”

He clung to consciousness and clawed his way back to focus, the need not to worry his teammates enough to give him the strength to focus. Shiro came back to himself on the floor of Green’s cockpit, laying on the side that had taken the hit. The area of impact, along with his head, throbbed in time with his heart beat.

He might have over done it a bit. “Keep focused on the tunnel.”

Pidge looked like she would rather be focusing on him, even though she knew he was right. “The first aid kit is fully stocked. I made sure it was good before we left.”

She had never needed to pull anything from hers. The drills from the Garrison had pounded in the importance of routine checks before any flight and demanded she check anyway. Shiro smiled weakly at her diligence. He forced his arms under him, even though it hurt and none of his limbs wanted to cooperate. “Good thinking, Pidge.”

Her return smile was strained.

He was just grabbing the kit when the cockpit was flooded with natural light. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief to be free of the tunnels and back into open air.

Their relief was all too short lived. Mere seconds after clearing the tunnels what felt like a tractor beam turned on reverse slammed into all five lions, sending the lions crashing into the ground. All of the passengers were thrown harshly into the wall that was suddenly the floor. Everyone grunted under the sheer force of the beam, no one able to lift so much as a finger.

There had indeed been a Galra cruiser. And now it had them.

-tbc

 


	2. The Way Forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! Chapter 3 is finished, so I am ready to post chapter 2! I am not certain what to do for c4 just yet, so I will be posting c3 next week regardless of if c4 is done or not. Hopefully that will be next Friday! I don't think I'll do a rewrite (with OG content) of "The Feud", but I still want to do something. Maybe an entirely original adventure to make up for it's loss? I still want Shiro and Lance to work through those issues the series likes to pretend aren't there (with maybe Keith as well, since they never talked about what happened in s4 either?) What do y'all think?
> 
> As a side note: You know, I just realized that I (and the show??) apparently forgot about the space caterpillars? The two that left with Pidge when she left the castle? Unless I missed her releasing them into the wildness of space? So, they will also be joining the crew! I edited them into c1 as well! (OMG, what a menagerie, lol) 
> 
> Lastly, thank you to everyone for your support! I was blown away by all of your lovely comments. ♥ I hope you all like this chapter as well! This one is dedicated to each and everyone one of you and all the future readers to come!  

Pain.

It wasn’t the first time he’d woken up to it. Shiro just never looked forward to it when it happened. 

An angry voice filtered through the haze as he struggled to remain conscious. “Don’t you touch him!” The same voice hissed at whoever they were shouting at and the sounds of a struggle ensued. 

Hands grabbed hold of his arms, not caring for the agony the jostling was causing him. When he snapped open his eyes, he half expected to see Matt or Commander Holt being forced to walk behind him. Instead, he was greeted by a two figures manhandling Pidge towards the exit of the cockpit. “Pidge…” 

Pidge nearly threw off her attackers in her efforts to turn towards him. “Shiro!” She stomped on the foot of one of her kidnappers. It only earned her an arm twist that looked painful. “What are you doing? Can’t you see he’s hurt!?” 

The two pirates dragging him along behind them didn’t care. Being moved like this was hardly dignified and it  _hurt_ , but he couldn’t find the energy to force himself to his feet. 

Outside, the others were similarly being herded along. A pair of pirates carried the confiscated Bayards and helmets off down a different hallway. Shiro vaguely took note he still had the Black Bayard, but that was only because this fighters couldn’t possibly know his Bayard and his arm were one and the same.  

A weapon had been drawn on Krolia, Keith, and Allura in addition to them already being handcuffed. Their guards were rumpled and scuffed and there were clear signs the trio hadn’t been taken without a fight. The rest of them were soon fitted with a matching pair of handcuffs, before being thrown into a holding cell. 

Something grim and unpleasant settled like a rock in Shiro’s stomach. He tried to remember that this wasn’t like the last time. That he wasn’t alone, but that treacherous, dark voice in the back of his mind merely pointed out that this only meant that  _all_  of them had been captured along with him. 

Keith face came into view as he kneeled over Shiro. His jaw was clenched so tight, it was impressive his teeth didn’t crack under the strain. He was just as furious as Pidge with their guards just dragging one of their teammates around.  

“Shiro? Are you alright?” Hands prodded at his side, causing Shiro to jerk and hiss. “Sorry! Sorry!” 

“Keith, let me.” Shiro tilted his head to see Allura kneeling on his other side. Her hair was partially pulled out of its bun and there was a bruise along the side of her jaw, but her eyes were clear and bright. In his partially lucid state, he hadn’t realized he’d raised his hands to the bruise until he saw one cupping her cheek. She managed a smile as she focused on his side. 

As they all watched, her hands began to glow. The pain dropped to a more tolerable level, enough that Shiro no longer felt like he was one wrong move away from passing out again. 

“Thank you, Allura.” 

She looked remorseful. “It’s all I can do for now. I don’t have enough energy for any more.” She reached up and took his hands in her own. “You’ll still need a trip in a pod to repair the rest of the damage.” 

He wasn’t looking forward to that, but everyone needed to be at their best. Allura and Keith helped him move to the wall farthest from the door, where he settled with his back to the wall. It gave him the best view of the cell, his teammates, and the one door that served as their only way in or out. Keith sat himself down on Shiro’s injured side, expression dark and fierce. Pidge flanked his other side, nearly nestling herself into the space. Hunk took her open side, while Romelle took Keith’s. Allura remained standing, placing herself in front of their more vulnerable teammates without obstructing their view of the door. Krolia took watch, peering through the small view port. 

Lance also remained on his feet. He restlessly paced from one wall to the next, inspecting every nook and cranny he could reach. The rest of the group watched him as much as they watched the door, letting him do what he wanted because it was something to fill the time. It was significantly better than imagining what could be in store for them.  

Pidge narrowed her eyes at the back of his head, as he pressed his ear to the wall. “What are you doing?” 

Lance continued his way down the wall. “I’m looking for a secret passage of some sort.” 

The Green Paladin raised an eyebrow, largely unimpressed with the explanation. “You’ve watched too many spy movies." She pointed to the ceiling. “There isn’t even a vent in this cell.” 

The Blue Paladin remained undeterred, kicking the wall for good measure. Judging from his whimper, it accomplished nothing more than giving him a sore foot. 

“Lance.” The teen turned a watery eyed face on Shiro, holding his foot gingerly. “Come sit down. You’ll need your energy for when it’s time to make our escape.” 

Lance was reluctant to come and join their Paladin pile, shoulders slumped like he’d somehow failed some self-appointed test. “I just don’t like sitting around.” He glanced at the door over his shoulder. “This whole waiting thing makes me nervous.” 

Shiro reached out and placed a hand on his younger teammate’s knee. “It’s a psychological tactic.” He gave the knee under his hand a squeeze until Lance turned his attention back to Shiro. “They’re trying to mess with us. We can’t let them get to us or we won’t be ready for them when they do show up.” 

Lance didn't relax, but he seemed to settle somewhat at the reassurance. Hunk also nodded, a little of the tension draining out of his body as he took the words to heart as well. 

“There’s only one guard.” Krolia took in as much of the hallway as she could. Their captors had made a show of force to take them, but now that they were behind lock and key, she hadn’t seen another guard but the one right outside their cell door. “If we could just get this door open, we could over power him.” 

Keith indicated Shiro’s arm/Bayard. “Could you try cutting through the door?” When activated, the hand seemed to function similarly to Pidge’s. Both were able to cut through thick metal like butter. 

Shiro tried to get it to activate. It moved and functioned with normal response time, but it wouldn’t activate. Allura wasn't the only one who was feeling drained. He made a noise to indicate that option was a negative. “Even the feelings are dulled.” 

Lance sighed, “At least, Coran is still out there.” 

Everyone else paused. As one, they took a head count. 

If they eliminated the wolf, the mice, Pidge's space caterpillars, and the cow, they were indeed missing someone. Krolia seemed almost impressed. “He must have hid when we were captured.” 

Allura grinned. “Coran is very good at thinking up distractions. I bet we’ll hear something from him in no time!” 

At that very moment, the Altean in question had every intention of causing a ruckus and getting his missing family back. He just had to free himself first. Something that was proving to be… difficult. No amount of attempting to strong arm the door open seemed to do the trick. It was good to know the Lions were very well made, it was simply inconvenient at the moment. 

Back leaning against the wall, he took a moment to catch his breath. “Quite the sticky  _wicket_  I find myself in.” He curled his hands into fists and pumped one into the air enthusiastically. “This is no time to delay. I need to get out there and rescue my patriots!” He glared at the door out of the corner of his eye, which was still just as firmly shut as it had been before. 

Rude. 

He was so caught up in planning this heroic stunt and how he would write about it in his memoirs, he didn’t hear the mice until they were practically right on top of him. High strung from the legit danger he was in, no honestly, he threw himself against the door and  _almost_ shrieked. 

The mice, who Coran would swear until his dying day looked amused, chirped at him as if they hadn’t just nearly given him heart failure. He schooled his reaction into a perfectly normal one as he knelt down beside them.

“Hello, little friends! I see you managed to escape capture as well!” 

The mice chirped again. Coran rather wished Allura was here so he could speak to them or vise versa. “We can all go to help rescue the others. Just as soon as I get this door open!” 

Their smallest allies each turned to the others and squeaked. If Coran didn’t know any better, he’d think they were actually coming up with a plan. In fact, they might actually be coming up with a plan. Without another squeak, they high tailed it for a vent (the one they came in through?) and scurried back out of the hold. 

The adviser could hear them as they worked their way through the Black Lion, going over his head and then back towards the other side where the door opened into the cargo hold. He pressed his ear to the door, trying to listen through it. Were they actually going to open the door? 

They were! The door slid open unexpectedly, depositing Coran onto the floor and into sweet, sweet freedom. Keith’s space wolf watched him eerily from where he’d decided to plop himself down and wait. 

Coran squinted at him. “You wouldn’t be able to sniff the others out, would you?” 

The wolf watched him back. Coran was about to give up, when the animal got to his feet. The mice took the opportunity to climb his legs and take up residence on his back, squeaking and cheering. 

“Huh, this might actually work.” Coran rubbed his chin as he considered the tools at his disposal. If the wolf could track down their missing crew members, they could be in and out before anyone knew it. He wasn’t quite certain about relying on someone he’d just met, but the wolf seemed to understand people when they talked to him.  

Plan in mind, he made his way to the exit of the Black Lion, the wolf and mice on his heels. “Now, first things first, I need a disguise…” 

The lack of crew played into Coran's favor as there was only a single guard down below. Coran, the mice, and the wolf all looked at each other. Coran had just opened his mouth to tell him he’d take care of the guard when the wolf and mice utterly and completely ignored him and proceeded to jump right off the Black Lion.  

Coran scrambled to the side of the Lion and peered the edge, gaping as the quintet dispatched of the guard with little trouble. He winced a little as the wolf showed off that he had a set of very nice, sharp teeth he wasn’t afraid to use. Once the guard was dispatched, Coran half-slid-half-fell off the lion to the hanger’s floor. If he was a little disgraceful in his execution, well, the mice and the wolf weren’t going to tell. 

Coran donned the pirate’s disguise, leaving the mangled scarf behind. It wasn’t in very good shape anymore and blood stains would draw too much attention. Once the guard was hidden away were he wouldn’t be immediately noticeable to any passerby, Coran held out a hand to indicate the wolf and mice take the lead. “Go find Keith, Wolfy!” 

The wolf’s tail twitched at the address. Coran made a mental note not to use it again. Still, the large creature sniffed at the ground, then at the air, and then took off at a determined run. It was a good thing Coran was a fast sprinter or he’d never have been able to keep up. 

They were several hallways in before they ran into their first set of pirates. The sound of their voices and their discussion about “free Kalteneckers” alerted the group they were there long before Coran peaked around the corner. 

Two guards, both armed but not suspicious. Coran could totally handle this. Shoving his helmet on, he whispered to the others: “You stay here, I got this.” 

It seemed the universe wasn’t ready for Coran to show off his talents, however. Like with the guard, fate interfered in the form of a lone fighter who dispatched of the two guards in a matter of moments. Coran shoved the visor of his helmet up to make certain he was seeing things correctly. Yes, he did indeed recognize the lone fighter. “Wait, aren’t you one of Lotor’s generals?” 

The female turned towards him, not surprised to see him. She wasn’t wearing the uniform he’d last seen her in, but rather something more stylized. Were the Galra trying out a new thing? “It’s Axca,” she offered. 

The space wolf and the mice came around the corner. Coran continued to stare in incomprehension at the turn of events. Acxa sighed. “Come with me. This hallway isn’t safe.” 

The entourage followed along behind her as she led them through a maze of hallways and corridors. As they made their way, she explained how she had come to be on this ship as well. “I picked up your signal. I’m guessing that’s how Zethrid and Ezor were able to intercept you.” 

This would be good to mention to Pidge later. A small fleet of pirates were able to overpower them at the moment, there current situation as case and point. They didn’t need anything bigger being led right to them. This didn’t explain the other important thing in their situation, namely: “Why are you helping us?” 

Acxa’s patience with his questions seemed to have run out. “There’s no time. Your friends are being held in a detention cell several floor below us.” She glanced at the wolf, who was watching her with that unnervingly blank look of his. “Just keep going the way you were going and it’ll lead you right to them.” She paused to check the hallway she was about to head down for any guards. “Once you all have the lions, we can blast our way out.” 

Coran pulled a face. “It won’t be that easy. The Lions are low on power. They won’t be much help in a fight.” 

She pulled back around the edge of the hallway, considering the new dilemma. “So, if the entire fleet came after us?” 

He gestured to the area around them. “Right back here or worse.” 

Pulling up the schematics of the cruiser on her suit's wrist computer, Acxa considered their options. “We’ll need a distraction and an escape route.” 

Coran pointed to the ion cannon, conveniently (for them, anyway) located right near the dormant lions. “What about the ion cannon here?” 

The half-Galra woman ran through the scenario and found it viable. “We can blast a hole in the bay doors. The ship is designed so that the other hangers will seal off to maintain ship integrity.” 

It was a good design, under most cases. In this one… “So the pirates would only have pods to chase us until they could override the system.” 

Acxa rose to her feet, followed closely by Coran. She was already preparing to take off, when she said, “Go get your friends. Once I blast the doors, you’ll all be sucked into space.” 

Coran nodded, his group already ready to take off. “We’ll be back in five  _dobashes_.” 

Plans in place, they took off in two separate directions. 

Back in their cell, the sound of the heavy bolt keeping the door locked sliding back roused the Paladins and their new allies from the lull they had fallen into as they waited for anything to happen. Krolia stepped back from the door as two guards stepped into the cell, guns held at ready if any of them tried anything.   

On their heels, in came two familiar figures, each wearing grins that promised suffering was in the Paladin's near future. 

Shiro took in their change of uniforms and the fact that Zethrid appeared to missing any sight in her left eye. When had that happened? Healing via pods made gauging the age of wounds a funny thing, but there was something in the way she moved that showed she had already compensated for this blind side. He also didn't fail to notice how Ezor had taken up residence on her more vulnerable side, again, without a second thought. He filed it away as bizarre and potentially of use for later.

Lance narrowed his eyes at them. “Aren’t you the two Lotor shot into space?” He might have still been irritated by their numerous attempts at killing them. 

Pidge apparently was as well. “And tried to kill us?”

Hunk, bless his soul, had decided to focus on the positive. After all, they were just as often Lotor’s enemies as they been his allies. Maybe they could be Team Voltron’s allies and this could end way better than any of them being tortured or killed. “Hey, we’re all friends now, right?” This last part was said to his own teammates as much as to the generals. Amicably, he offered, “I, for one, am glad you survived.” 

Ezor smiled. “I’m glad you survived, too.” Her smile took a sinister twist. “It’s no fun torturing a dead person." 

Hunk drew back. This one was definitely not an ally. “You are not a nice person.” She even had the gall to look like he’d just complimented her, making her way less friendly. 

“Where have you been all this time?” Zethrid raised her voice over the conversation, such that it was, steering it back in the direction she wanted. “Where is Lotor?” 

The question made no sense. The urgency, barely audible, but there regardless, even less so. Shiro shifted, drawing their attention to him. “What are you talking about?” 

Ezor was unmoved, hands on her hips and already bored with this part of the interrogation. “We’re talking about your little disappearance act.” 

Zethrid took a step forward, her size made more intimating with the fact that most of them were sitting down. Her voice pitched in volume with her irritation. “Answer the question! How did you survive the explosion?” 

Hunk shrugged, at a loss. “Don’t you know? You were there.” 

Ezor’s unfriendly smile was back. She seemed happy they weren’t giving them whatever they wanted. “I think there’s a little confusion here. We ask the questions and you answer them.” 

“Where is Lotor?” Zethrid demanded again. She was starting to lose her patience. 

Keith was starting to lose his patience as well. There was clearly a communication gap going on here. “Lotor is dead. We left him in the Quintessence Field.” 

Ezor shook her head. “See, that doesn’t add up. If Lotor is dead, why aren't you,” she gestured to them, “Also dead?” 

“Because of…” Everyone looked at Hunk as he tried to come up with a good explanation. “The Power of Team Work?” 

Well, he wasn’t wrong. But said like that, it only made their struggle to get out of the Quintessence Field before they all went insane or lost power sound like something out of a children’s show. 

Ezor and Zethrid seemed unimpressed with the response.  

“I’m going to ask you one more time and then we’re going to have to take a more extreme approach.” 

“The fun approach.” Ezor looked like she was way too into the torture thing. 

“Where is Lotor and where have you been all this time?” 

The group met the question with silence. They had already told them what they knew. There was nothing else to give. Ezor and Zethrid should have known this, as well. 

Their silence only made the women more restless. Something more seemed to be driving on their behavior, something the group was missing. Until they could figure it out, though, there was no way to give the women the answers they seemed so desperate to get.  

Zethrid finally lost her patience. “If you insist on this charade of ignorance, you leave us no choice.” 

Ezor looked like they had gotten to the good part. “Finally! Who’s our first victim?” 

As one, the group shifted into a more defensive position. Shiro and Pidge tensed. Keith and Hunk instinctively shifted to shield Shiro and Pidge behind them. Lance partially rose to his feet, he and Allura blatantly placing themselves in front of the others. Krolia took a step back until she was in front of her son and Romelle. 

Zethrid scanned the group, taking note of their positions and who they were trying to protect most. She instantly zoomed in on the two at the center of the group. One was injured, but still large enough to cause problems. The smaller one, on the other hand, was a much better target.

“You. I’d bet my fleet this group has a soft spot for the smallest one.” 

Lance was on his feet and throwing himself at Ezor before she could take more than two steps towards them. “Don’t you touch her!” The former general dodged his attack with annoying ease and a flashy flip that ended with her kicking him to the other side of the cell. One of the guards was on him before he could do more than sit up, gun charged and more than enough of a warning not to move again. 

Zethrid had to admire their loyalty, even as she found it useless. “Your resistance is adorable. Too bad it won’t get you anywhere.” 

To demonstrate, her companion whipped out the appendage that hung from her head like an extra limb. The end of it wrapped around Pidge’s cuffed arms. Shiro was already throwing himself half over Pidge in an attempt to keep her by his side. Unfortunately, whatever that thing was, it was strong. Strong enough to rip their teammate right out of his hands. 

“Pidge!” Hunk’s cry was punctuated by Ezor slamming her back against the wall.  

“Answers!” 

Shiro started to rise to his feet, ignoring the pain in his side. “Enough! We told you what we know. Let her go.” He beat down the rising panic in his chest. He had failed to protect her father and her brother. He couldn’t fail Pidge as well. 

With the senses coming from his Bayard dulled, he almost missed the feeling of a hand ( _Keith_ ) on his arm. The squeeze that followed was enough to ground him back in the present. He wasn’t alone. Pidge wasn’t alone. They would get through this, all of this, together.

Pidge gritted her teeth, struggling and kicking as she was dragged up the wall. Sharp, hazel eyes were sharp as she glared defiantly at Ezor. The reptilian female leaned into her personal space, until the Green Paladin could see the bloodlust dark in her eyes. "Please. Resist. It's been so long since I've had any fun."

Thankfully, before Ezor could do more than drag her up the wall, the entire ship shook as a loud explosion could be heard from somewhere else above them. An alarm blared out, “Hull Breach in Hanger 1. Lock Down sequence initiated.” 

Zethrid jerked around. "What the--?!" She immediately took off, the guards right behind her. Ezor hesitated, clearly unhappy to have her fun interrupted. With a regretful air, she tossed Pidge back into the group like she was an old rag, before following her partner. 

Shiro and Hunk caught Pidge, grunting as the edges of her armor dug into the areas their own armor didn’t protect as much. None of that mattered, however, next to having her back with them. 

“Are you okay?” Hunk asked as Lance got to his feet and rejoined them. 

Pidge nodded, getting to her feet with only a slight wince. It was nothing a little rest couldn’t see her through. 

Krolia nodded to Keith and the others, the majority of them getting to their feet to join her on either side of the door. Hunk hung behind with Shiro, ready to help if the Black Paladin needed assistance remaining on his feet. “This is it. We over power whoever comes through that door next.” 

Her words were followed by a sudden high pitched scream and a vicious growl that sounded suspiciously familiar. Lance pointed at the door while squinting at Keith. “Does that sound like the space wolf to you?” 

Keith nodded in just as much bafflement, something that didn’t abate as the doors slid open to reveal that the noise had indeed come from the wolf. The canine sat passively staring back at them, the mice waving at them from his head. Off to the side a little, Coran waved at them. He looked a little perturbed for some reason. “Hello everyone! We’ve come to rescue you!” 

Allura threw herself at him. “Coran! I knew you’d come for us.” The mice squeaked at her insistently. The princess smiled down at them gratefully. “And you, too, my little friends. I can always count on you to help me when I need you.” 

The mice, as one, saluted her with pride. They transferred themselves over to Allura’s shoulders as Keith reached out to run a hand down the wolf’s head. “Good boy.” The wolf butted his head up against his hand, pleased to see his companion returned to him. 

Pidge stood up from where she’d been searching the guards. An odd device, one end matching the port in their cuffs, held up in triumph. “Found the key to our cuffs!” 

Lance all but shoved his hands into her face. “Finally! I am so beyond ready to have these things off.”  

The Green Paladin rolled her eyes at him. She uncuffed him, handing the key over to him to uncuff hers afterword. The key made the rounds until everyone’s hands were free.

Shiro took a deep breathe, preparing to move despite the fact that just standing  _hurt_. They were going to need to run, if necessary, and he couldn't afford to hold the group up. Beside him, Hunk fretted, hands out but not quite making contact. Shiro nodded, allowing Hunk to throw one of his arms over the Yellow Paladin's shoulder and pull him away from the wall. He hissed, because he was right, it did hurt, but not so much he couldn't move. 

Coran pointed down the way they came. “We need to hurry and get your helmets and Bayards.” He paused. “Well, the other Bayards. I saw them on the way down here." He held up a finger, as if remembering something. "Also, Acxa’s already blasted the doors open and the Lions are likely floating around outside as we speak.” 

Keith jerked around to face him. “Acxa is here?” And she was their ally? What was going on here? 

Coran nodded. The Red Paladin was tempted to go after her, but first they needed their missing things back. “Lead the way.” 

The group followed Coran down several hallways until they came to an open door. They could hear two voices coming from within, seemingly unconcerned with the earlier announcement of a hull breach or with the ship’s potentially compromised integrity. 

Keith scratched behind the wolf’s ear, making certain there were only two guards and no one else in the room, before ordering: “Sic ‘em.” 

The others watched with almost morbid fascination as the wolf prowled silently into the room. With a predator’s grace, he took both guards completely by surprise. It was almost laughable how easily he dispatched of them.  

Lance gulped, more than slightly intimidated. “What have you been teaching that thing?” 

Keith couldn’t resist teasing him a little. “I didn’t teach him a thing.” He grinned at the Blue Paladin’s horror. “He does whatever he wants.” 

Lance decided right then and there that the wolf was the scariest member of their team and he was  _never_  going to piss him off. 

After they had retrieved their helmets, Bayards, and Keith’s blade, and two space suits and a makeshift helmet/air supply for their non-armor wearing members, the Red Paladin darted for the door. “Lance, make certain everyone makes it safely to the Lions.”

Lance asked the obvious question they were all thinking: “And where are you going?" 

“I’m going after Acxa.”

Shiro wanted to protest - they needed to stay together - but he recognized that look in Keith's eye. Keith was on a mission and he was going to carry it out regardless of what anyone said.

Keith stood poised in the doorway, debating on which way to go. “She saved our skin. I’m not leaving her behind.” Direction picked, he called, “I’ll meet up with you soon,” as he took off in it. 

Lance gave the group a helpless shrug. “Well, you heard him. Let’s go find our lions.” 

They met with no resistance as they made their way through the ship. Everyone who didn’t stick to their stations must have gone to deal with the hull breach. It made it easy to find a hatch they could escape through. It also meant that the moment they were headed for the lions, everyone dealing with the hull breach were now in one place to come deal with  _them_. 

Lance and Pidge spun around to start returning fire.

Shiro pulled on Hunk's arm. "I can make it to the lion from here. Go help the others."

Assured that Shiro could make it to Black on his own, Hunk joined the fray to send one of the pirates ricocheting off the others like a pin ball machine. Krolia sent one spinning off into space with a knick to the tube connecting his air supply to his helmet. In the ensuing chaos of pirates going every where at once, it was almost child’s play to make it back to the lions. 

Which just left them to retrieve Keith. Shiro had the Black Lion scan the ship, searching for their missing Paladin’s signal. The display placed him smack dab in the middle of the ship, but was able to provide no other information. “Come on, Keith…” 

Inside the ship, Keith had found Acxa in a two-on-one fight with Zethrid and Ezor. Adding him to the mix hadn’t evened the odds, as the two Pirate warlords were a ridiculously good pair. It was pure good luck that the storage area they’d been tossed into had synthian nitrate in it. 

“Guys,” Keith called over the coms. “Zero in on my location and fire on it.” 

Allura’s eyes widened in alarm. “Are you sure?” 

“Just do it!” 

Location locked, they all fired on Keith’s location. Inside the ship, Keith grabbed hold of Axca and fired his boosters. Zethrid and Ezor, not having heard the conversation, had no clue the explosion was coming until they were caught in it. Keith and Axca had already turned back around and were blasting out through the gigantic hole in the hull, not sticking around to see if their enemies had survived or not. 

Outside, as the fire raged and smoke billowed from the detonation site, the others waited, all on edge to see if they’d just doomed their team mate or not. They were relieved when Keith came charging out of the smoke, Acxa in tow. Shiro brought Black in to retrieve them. 

Shiro allowed himself a moment of relief as Keith came bounding into the cockpit. Keith had a few more bruises and his armor was a little more scuffed, but there was no pause in his movements as he helped Shiro out of the pilot's seat and passed him over to Krolia.  

Krolia patiently helped him down into the cargo hold, Shiro catching a glimpse of Keith taking the controls before he was out of sight. He dropped unceremoniously onto the nest he’d been calling a bed, all too happy to rest until they could set up the pod. 

Hours later, sure they wouldn’t be followed or tracked, they finally touched down on the planet they’d originally set out for. A good thing, too, as the Lions weren’t looking too good. Something Hunk brought up as he entered the Black Lion’s cargo hold, where Allura, Pidge and Coran were setting up the pod.  

“I just looked at the Lions, and they’re in worse shape than ever.” 

“They’ll be doing better after we find a Yalmor and some faunatonium,” Coran explained. He didn’t pause in his work as he spoke. “With any luck, we can be up and going again by tomorrow.” He turned to Pidge. “Just connect the two cables there and we’ll be ready to go!” 

Pidge gave a thumbs up. She hooked the two ends of the cables together. Over by Coran and Allura, the pod lit up, a sure sign that it was up and running. Coran worked to run some diagnostics to make certain it was running properly. 

Lance, Keith and Romelle had all congregated around Shiro’s nest blankets, near but not enough to be claustrophobic. The wolf had somehow wormed his way in between Shiro’s back and the wall, where he seemed content to take a nap, while the mice were somewhere in the bedding near his knees. Hunk came over to sit with them, plopping himself down beside the Blue Paladin with a sigh of relief to be off his feet finally. Krolia stood over by the wall on the other side of the cargo hold, while Acxa occupied the adjacent to her. 

Lance was still trying to digest everything they had seen over the past day. “Wow, I can’t believe how much has changed over the last week.” 

Acxa straightened out of her casual lean against the wall, staring at them in confusion. “’Week’? What are you talking about?” 

Allura’s role in the set up complete, she too came over to join her teammates. “Since the last time we saw you.” 

The purple haired woman gaped at them. “That was  _three_ _deca-pheobes_  ago.” 

Everyone gaped back at her. Even Shiro mustered the energy to stare at her. 

Keith nearly sputtered. “That’s impossible. We saw you and the other’s get jettisoned from Lotor’s ship. That was only a week ago.” 

Acxa shook her head. “We were jettisoned from Lotor’s ship and we managed to make it to a nearby meteor. We saw Voltron and Lotor’s ship vanish and then Voltron return, alone. After that, there was a big explosion and then… nothing.” She looked at them each in turn, frown increasing as she realized they were telling the truth. “That was three deca-pheobes ago.” 

Pidge’s voice was small, like she was confessing a secret. “That would explain the discrepancy between the star charts and our lions.” She was the last to join their pile of exhausted bodies, a holographic display on her wrist up as she did so. “I thought it was because of our inter-dimensional hopping, which I guess it was, but if there was also a time jump…” 

Allura’s expression was grim. “As far as the rest of the universe is concerned, Voltron has been missing for three deca-pheobs?” 

The grim silence spread to the group at large. Keith, who had already had experience with time moving differently for him then the rest of the universe, was the first to recover. “So, how did you wind up here, helping us?” 

Acxa’s gaze grew distant. “We were marooned on that meteor for days. We were eventually rescued by a Galra ship that had come to investigate Lotor’s disappearance.” She crossed her arms, not quite a hug or a defense. “We took over the ship. With Lotor gone, it left a power vacuum in the Galra Empire. Zethrid and Ezor wanted to exploit this to their own gain. I needed to find my own path.” Her head raised, eyes seeking out Keith’s. “A path that led me to you.” 

Keith’s expression was thankful. “Thank you. For helping us.” 

His gratitude only seemed to make her feel more guilty. “I hope that this makes up for the wrong I did in the past. I believed Lotor when he preached of unity.” Her expression darkened. “Instead he was just using all of us for his own personal gain.” 

Allura was sympathetic. She, too, knew how persuasive Lotor had been. They all were. “I understand how you feel. I fell for Lotor’s lies as well.” 

Lance reached out and tentatively placed a hand on her arm, offering support without wanting to push her boundaries. Allura covered the hand with her own, the only sign she gave she appreciated act. 

Acxa’s expression cleared as determination took hold. “I will do whatever I can to help with the Voltron Coalition.” 

Hunk shivered, despite the hold being fairly warm. “Wait, so everyone that’s been helping us thinks we’re dead?” 

Pidge had an even more disturbing realization. “I haven’t been able to get a hold of Matt or my dad on Earth.” It was like loosing track of them two – no,  _five_  years ago all over again. “What’s happened to them over the last three years?” 

“And if Zethrid and Ezor became Warlords in that time,” Allura speculated. “What else has changed?” 

It seemed their journey back to Earth was going to be far more complicated than they thought it would be. 

-tbc 


	3. A Little Adventure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro dreams of his life before the Kerberos Mission while the others look for a Yalmor and some faunatonium.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG. I'm not certain what happened here, but Adam, Shiro, and Keith's pre-Kerberos days completely took over this chapter. I meant to only write a few bits of their lives to fill out what we got and this got waaaaaay out of hand. Oops?
> 
> Anyway, I have decided that I will not be doing "The Feud." I will be switching it out for a totally original chapter of my own. It'll be a self contained chapter and then I'll be back with "The Ruins." There will be mention of "The Feud" in the chapter, but humor is not my strong point and I have no clue what that episode would have been like with Shiro there, so... yeah.
> 
> Anyway, thank you again to everyone who left me kudos and such amazing feedback! You all are the best! ♥

The first time Takashi Shirogane fell in love it was with the stars and the universe they occupied. Long before joining the Garrison was an option, he had learned the names of each of the constellations in the night sky and the different lights that made them up. He could rattle off the distance between the sun and each of its orbiting celestial bodies or the distance between the Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy. Naming off known demi-planets and asteroid belts were a piece of cake.

Reading about the Calypso planted the idea that it might be possible that he, too, could explore different planets and moons. The first chance he got, he begged with his parents to allow him to attend the Garrison. His enthusiasm, natural talent, and hard work practically made him a shoe in. For a long time, he’d thought getting into the Garrison was the happiest moment of his life.

The second time Takashi Shirogane fell in love, it was with his roommate and Shiro learned that happiness could take many forms. For the first time in his life, Shiro found himself paying as much attention to what was going on Earth as to what was going on in the space. That should have been a clue, but loving Adam was so easy, Shiro hadn’t realized how deep he was until he was in over his head.

Adam was steel and determination. The only person who could keep up with Shiro and keep him on his toes. If Shiro wasn’t topping the charts, Adam was. They were the rising stars of the Garrison and it made sense to pair them as flight partners. 

What Shiro loved the most was how much Adam cared. He wasn’t just brave and confident, he was genuinely supportive. He always had patience with their engineer, who was book smart, but didn’t do well under pressure. Their dorm always felt like it had a revolving door as struggling classmates showed up at all hours of their off time to beg for help with upcoming tests. More than one person claimed they only survived their training days because Adam had taken their hopeless self and made certain they were ready for whatever came their way.

He was liked by everyone. Looking back, Shiro hadn’t stood a chance.

*****

Coran gave the pod one last look over, before giving it a thumbs up. “A couple  _vargas_  in there and Number One will be good as new.” He turned to the group, most of whom were still camped out near Shiro’s now empty sleeping space. “More than enough time to find a Yalmor and get our faunatonium.”

Keith hovered on the other side of the pod. He'd assisted Shiro into the pod and then refused to move. No one planned on asking him to move unless it was necessary. “Alright, you all go find a Yalmor and this faunatonium.” He looked to Acxa. “I’ll stay here to keep an eye on Shiro and help Acxa gather some supplies.”

Krolia came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder, eyes sympathetic. “I’ll remain as well.” It was very likely she would be doing most of the supplies gathering, to keep Keith from having to moving far from the pod. She didn’t appear to mind in the slightest.

Allura got to her feet, dusting herself off as she did so. To their guest, she said, “We don’t have much to spare, but there should be enough to get you started.”

The half-Galra woman nodded. “Once I depart, I’ll continue to try and reach out to the other members of the coalition to let them know what happened.”

Pidge was the next to drag herself to her feet. She pulled a flash drive out of her armor and handed it over to Acxa. “My brother is with them. If you get this to him, he’ll be able to read it.” Her shoulders drooped. “If you see him, please tell him I’m sorry for disappearing and that we’re trying to make it back as soon as we can.”

Acxa’s took the drive. Her expression softened. “It wasn’t your fault. Hopefully, you’ll see each other soon.”

Hunk and Lance got to their feet as well, grouping around Pidge to show their support. They also had people they were missing, too. The idea that, to the rest of the universe, they had been gone for three years and there was no telling what their families thought had happened to them was hard.

Coran let them have their moment, proud of his little found family and how they were looking out for each other. He was loath to break up this moment, but they did have a task head of them. “Alright, everyone! The faster we find ourselves a Yalmor, the faster we find our faunatonium and can head for Earth.” He ushered the ones going out the door, pausing only to give Romelle a hand up to her feet.

*****

“Come on, Shiro! You’re going to fall behind at this rate!”

For someone who had seemed like they were one second away from falling asleep all day, Adam had come alive now that the day was coming to an end. He’d all but shoved Shiro onto a bike, before taking off with one of his own. The black haired teen wasn’t even sure how they had been able to check out the bikes, other than the red head had “taken care of it” (whatever that meant).

Which all lead to them racing across the desert at near break neck speeds as Adam led him to some undisclosed location.

Shiro gunned the engine, coming up along side Adam’s bike. “You still haven’t told me where we’re going!”

Adam threw him a grin. “That’s because it’s a surprise! You do remember what surprises are, right?”

Yes, but he usually only dealt with them in simulators, where they were there to make your life miserable. He might have grown a bit weary of them of late.

Likely remembering this, Adam’s expression grew sympathetic. “You’ll like this, I promise. You trust me, right?”

Shiro trusted him with his life, even if he hadn’t figured out a way to say that without it sounding  _extremely_  cheesy. 

Overhead, the sky was in the final stages of dusk. Around them, the desert was just starting to cool and to come alive as the wildlife came out of their daily refuge to enjoy the reprieve from the hot sun. Shiro was glad he’d brought his jacket, even if it had been slightly too warm to wear it during the day.

As the last slips of sunlight disappeared over the horizon and Shiro was worried they were going to be driving too far to return anytime that night, Adam took a sharp turn down a road he would have missed altogether had they not just started driving on it. It lead them a into a sort of mini valley, untouched by man, as far as Shiro could see.

This little valley also appeared to be their destination. Adam brought his bike to a stop, before parking it and dismounting. Shiro brought his bike to a stop beside his, looking out across the valley. There didn’t appear to be anything, but, well,  _the valley_  and he had to admit he was a little confused and curious as to why they were here.

“Okay.” Shiro turned to Adam, expectantly raising an eyebrow. “So, what is this surprise?”

For all the rush to get here, his roommate didn’t seem to be in any hurry. “It’ll just take a few minutes more.” He patted the area of the bike beside him. “Honestly, you’ll love it.”

Shiro was beginning to have his reservations about that, but he still got off his borrowed bike. He came around and leaned against the bike in his designated spot, crossing his arms as he did so.

For several minutes, all that happened were the growing sounds of the desert around them. It was kind of nice, in a peaceful way. Shiro would get bored with it if he was forced to deal with it long term, but for the moment it was nice. Turning to Adam, he intended to ask again what they were doing out here. 

Only to pause. Adam had his head tilted back, eyes to the sky, body casual and relaxed. Without taking his eyes off whatever he was looking at, he half turned to Shiro and pointed up. “Look.”

Not sure what to expect, Shiro followed his gaze and looked up.

He was vaguely aware of his eyes growing wide and his lips parting in a started surprise, but he couldn’t give it too much focus. All his attention was for the night sky. This far from civilization and any other type of man made sources of light, the night sky was full of stars. Shiro knew that the desert had some glorious views of the night sky if one knew where to look, but he didn’t think he’d ever seen it this clearly.

It took his breath away and he’d have to grill Adam as to where they were exactly, because he absolutely had to come back here again. This might just be his new favorite place.

“It’s beautiful.” Reaching out blindly, Shiro somehow managed to find Adam’s shoulder. He shook him, all without taking his off the sky. “How did you find this place? How long have you known about it?” Another shake. “Why did you never tell me?!”

And here Shiro had been thinking he and Adam were  _friends_. All while hiding amazing places like this when he  _knew_  how much his roommate was a sucker for things like this.

Adam merely laughed, the  _jerk_. “I found it on accident while I was helping Amy learn how to ride hover bikes. I decided to hold onto it for a special occasion.”

Shiro blinked, finally pulling his gaze to turn it on his roommate. “Special occasion? What special occasion?”

There was a long pause as Adam gave him a look that clearly said he thought Shiro was an idiot. He sighed, long suffering. “Seriously?” Reaching up, he lightly knocked the knuckles of one hand on Shiro’s forehead.

“Happy Birthday, Shiro.”

Shiro froze. His frazzled brain struggled to remember what the date was. Realized that he had indeed lost track the date and it was his birthday. Like, his actual birthday, leap year and all. A grin slowly spread over Shiro’s face, until it was nearly ear too ear. This was just too amazing. “Thank you, Adam. This… This is honestly the best present I’ve gotten, ever.”

He was so caught up in his joy, that he almost missed the change in the way Adam was staring at him. With just the light of the stars and the moon, it was a little hard to tell for sure, but he could have sworn the red head was blushing. 

“Adam?”

Adam put his face in his hands, moaning pitifully. “Gaaaaah, why are you so freakin’ adorable?” Without looking, he overdramatically made an up and down motion in Shiro general vicinity. “That’s it, I’m done. Bury me in a bed of roses and this memory. I want nothing more out of this life.”

Sputtering and face beet red, Shiro tried to shove Adam off the bike to little avail. “’ _Adorable_ ’?! Who calls people  _adorable_?”

Adam pulled his hands away from his face to return to staring at Shiro. His tone was utterly deadpan when he said, “Everyone, Shiro. Everyone calls you adorable. If we had a yearbook, your picture would be under: Garrison’s Most Adorable Cadet Ever.”

This time Shiro was the one putting his face in his hands, too embarrassed at that point to even speak. He didn’t react when Adam patted him on the back and offered sympathetically, “It’s okay. We all still love and respect you, even if you are too adorable sometimes to take seriously.”

“I hate you. I want a new roommate.” Shiro’s voice was muffled by his hands, but Adam heard it anyway. At least his roommate took pity on him and didn’t laugh at him. Well, not when he could hear him anyway.

Shiro took the silence that followed to try and recover, waiting until his face didn’t feel like it was on fire to lower his hands. Heart still beating a little too fast, he chanced a glimpse at Adam.

Who had a thoughtful expression on his face. Oh, no. “Adam?”

The red head was staring at the stars above them with almost suspicious determination. Shiro doubted he was actually seeing them, however. After several more minutes of silence, Adam finally admitted, “There might have been another reason I brought you out here.”

The dark haired teen wasn’t sure if he should flee now or get sweet, sweet revenge. His pride demanded the latter. “You mean besides trying to embarrass me to death?”

Adam made a thoughtful noise. “Wasn’t the intent, but it was a enjoyable side effect.”

“Oh, god. Move out. Now.”

Instead of answering back with more banter, Adam’s good humor seemed to be swallowed up by what appeared to be nervousness. Shiro blinked at it. He’d seen his flight partner take on simulators meant to destroy cadets’ confidence, their multiple instructor’s ruthless critiques, and even a real flight that had gone terribly, terribly wrong, all without so much as breaking a sweat. Seeing this crack in his confidence set alarm bells off and tempted Shiro to start thinking the worst. “Okay, you’re starting to scare me. Is everything alright?” 

Adam pushed up the bridge of his glasses, even though it was completely unnecessary. It was a stall tactic Shiro had seen other people do, which was the only reason he recognized it for what it was. His lips pressed together, as if he were running through scenarios only to discard them afterword. Eventually, he shook his head. “Never mind. This is probably a bad time.”

Somewhere between worried and curious, Shiro reached out and placed a hand Adam’s arm. He didn’t pull, even though he wanted to. “I’m not going to force you to tell me anything – even though I’m really curious now – but just remember you can tell me anything, okay?”

Instead of being a comfort, his words only seemed to make the red head look more like he was doomed. Adam took a deep breath and then let it out. He squared his shoulders and with all the determination of someone expecting they were going off to their death, turned to Shiro and stated, “Shiro, I don’t just like you. I  _like-like_  you.”

Shiro stared, not certain he had heard the words correctly. Wait. Was this a confession? Was this actually for real? His mind reeled as he tried to process what had just happened.

Adam… Adam  _liked_  him?

Did he like Adam back?

The object of his intense scrutiny was starting to look worried. “Shiro? Look, it’s okay if you don’t like me back, I just wanted you to know—”

Shiro held up a hand, palm facing Adam to signal he needed him to  _wait_. He needed to think. It wasn’t like he got a ton of confessions or anything, despite what Matt claimed. Confessing to someone was hard. It took courage. It deserved an honest answer.

Adam deserved an honest answer.

He took the feelings he had for his flight partner and studied them. Knew it was a form of love. It wasn’t like his familial love for his parents or grandparents. It wasn’t the platonic love he held for Matt and his other friends. It wasn’t even like the love he held for the stars that drove his every action.

He wasn’t sure if it was romantic love. Had never been in that kind of love before. He did know, however, that he did indeed like Adam. He enjoyed spending time with him and liked the idea of building something new with him. He could easily see himself spending the rest of his life with this young man, wherever that journey might take them.

He focused back onto the world outside his head. Adam hadn’t moved from where he’d left him, although Shiro was worried he might not be breathing.

A smile spread across Shiro’s face. “I think I may ‘like-like’ you, too.”

Adam’s eyes widened, disbelief and hope raging for victory in his expression. After a long moment, he stuffed his hands in his pockets, rocking back as a smile crossed his face. “Does that mean we’re dating?”

Shiro rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Yeah, we are.”

Hours later, when they snuck back into the complex far later than they should have, witnesses would have been hard pressed to have guessed whose birthday it really was.

*****

This was hardly their first alien planet since the Earthlings amongst the group had found the Blue Lion. They’d seen some strange and truly unusual places in their travels. There was just something so amazing, however, about seeing new fauna and landscapes that looked nothing like anything they’d ever seen on Earth that always seemed to dazzle them.

Even Pidge, who claimed she wasn’t big on nature, couldn’t help but be fascinated by trees that only vaguely resembled Earth trees and plants that looked like flowers until you got close enough to see teeth.

Romelle had the same look of wonder on her face, although there was a tinge of sadness to it. She wondered what her brother would have thought of this new world and regretted that he couldn’t be with her to see this whole new world. He would have loved it.

The only one who actually knew what they were looking for, Coran had taken lead in locating their target. He sniffed a pair of red plants, promptly sneezing at their spores. Oh, yes, this was promising. “This looks like a Yalmor patch.” He licked one of the plants, detecting that distinct tang that screamed they were close to their prize. “Yep, Yalmors have definitely sprayed here.”

Behind him, the others stopped what they were doing to first look at each other and then at the back of the Altean’s head. Their expressions ranged from incredulous to down right disgusted. Hunk realized how close he was to the patch, connected the dots, and then proceeded to give the “patch” a very wide breadth.

Not phased by their reactions in the slightest, Coran carried on. They needed steel like perseverance if they were going to find this prize. Finding the right pitch, he made the appropriate sounds to draw the Yalmor’s attention.

The group looked dubious, but, ah ha! It worked! A prospective Yalmor answered the call, drawing the group over to a clearing. There, wandering about it’s business, was their Yalmor.

Lance was not impressed. “I don’t know. I didn’t expect it to look that ugly.”

Pidge was enamored. “Aw, I think it’s cute. It kind of looks like the unholy joining of an anteater and a fox.”

Hunk tilted his head to the side. “I can kind of see it. I think something else would need to be thrown in as well, though.”

Before they could debate any further what that something was, exactly, Coran shushed them. “Yalmors are particularly aggressive if startled. You can’t show any sign of weakness or they attack. You have to corner them and show them whose the bigger, meaner Yalmor.” He jumped out of the bushes and began what looked like a very odd dance across the clearing. “Alfor and I used to use the Squelzian Technique when we needed to wrangle up some Yalmors!”

Romelle squinted at Allura, as if she expected her to start doing the same.

Allura looked pained. “I am  _not_  doing that. Father always looked ridiculous when he did it.” They watched the debacle, not certain what they’d think if this worked or not. It was right around the time that the Yalmor proceeded to rear back and slap Coran with enough force to send him flying that Allura remembered, “Oh, and it never worked.”

Hunk managed to catch Coran, the Altean’s larger size unbalancing him and sending them both crashing into Lance. The force of impact was enough to keep the Yellow Paladin on his feet, but it sent the Blue Paladin right into a patch of thorns. 

Bottom first.

Lance would have been mortified under normal circumstances by the noise he made –  _Allura was right there_  – but taking thorns to the tush  _hurt_ , so he was giving himself a little slack. After making even more of a fool of himself by landing in a pitiful pile of pain, Lance realized he was now face-to-face with a terrified snail creature. If snails could grow to be the size of a medium-sized dog. Despite the pain and humiliation, he wasn’t heartless. “Hey there, little fella. It’s okay, we won’t hurt you.”

There was no way for Lance to know that he was talking to a creature called a Blorfa, known for having a literal distorted view of the world around them. This was good for finding the berries and insects that made up their diet. It was not so good for when large, strange creatures decided to try and “comfort” them as they ended up looking down right  _terrifying_ to the Blorfa’s distorted vision. Understandably, from the creature’s point of view, the Blorfa hid away in its shell and employed it’s best line of defense.

The group were completely unprepared to get sprayed by a cloud of pink dust. They were even less prepared for when the dust cleared.

“Is it just me, or is the grass suddenly taller?”

It wasn’t just Pidge, the grass was definitely taller. Romelle was starting to regret coming on this trip. “What the  _quizacer_  just happened?”

Allura perked up at the altercation. She’d always found linguistics fascinating and here she was being presented by an example of it. “Oh, is that how it’s pronounced now?”

Hunk was significantly less interested in the way language changed over time and much more interested in how the ground was beginning to shake as something huge seemed to be coming their way. “Uh, what’s that?! Lance, what did you do?”

Lance was just as much at a loss as the rest of them. “I don’t know. I didn’t do anything!”

The sun was blocked out as whatever was making the ground shake came into view. In horror, they realized it was the Yalmor. Only instead of the Yalmor having only been the size of a medium sized animal before, it was now a towering giant.

As one, they all screamed, the situation suddenly becoming very clear. They had been  _shrunk_  and the Yalmor was  _going to eat them_.

*****

Four months after graduating, Takashi Shirogane’s life was turned upside down.

Shiro dropped down on the couch in their shared quarters, less sitting down and more his legs simply giving out. During his last physical, the doctors had found something that worried them. After multiple tests, the doctors had found the cause.

The name of the disease sounded convoluted. In the days that came after this one, he’d throw himself into the research, seeking out every last scrap of information he could find on it. At the moment, all that seemed to resonate his brain were the words ‘degenerative muscular disease’ and ‘incurable.’

The words banged around in his head like it was suddenly hollow. They felt huge and insurmountable and all to ready to consume him whole.

The disease was in the beginning stages, the doctor had told him. It would still take years before it really took a turn.

And it would take a turn. The doctor was adamant about this. There were treatments and exercises and other things he could do to prolong the onset, but inevitably, it would take a turn. Very likely before the age of 30. 

Most likely sooner than that. 

The woman who’d given him the results had been sympathetic. She had told him that the disease wasn’t the death threat it had once been. People with the disease had the prospect of living long, happy lives, baring complications. He might not even need assistance until well into his 30s. Possibly even his 40s if he took well to the treatments.

But. There was always a but. His muscles would start to weaken as they wasted away. His fine motor control would be gone long before then. He could see all his dreams of being a career pilot go up in smoke. Where before he had envisioned giving his life to this job, now it simply wasn’t possible.

“—iro? Shiro!”

Shiro tilted his head to bring Adam into view. Some part of him took in that his partner looked pale and worried. It was right there with being aware he wasn’t blinking properly. 

Mostly, he couldn’t seem to shake the numbness from his thoughts.

He felt Adam’s arms wrap around him. Could hear him saying something. Was aware of his own arms coming up to cling to Adam’s support. The rest was lost in the void of his mind. 

When he came back to himself later, he would pick himself back up and reexamine what the future had in store for him. What he’d still be able to do going forth and if reaching the stars was still an option.

For now, he simply let himself feel it. This would be the only time he cried about the diagnosis. The first and last time he’d morn the life he could have had. Throughout it all, Adam patiently held him, murmuring in his ear as he rubbed his back and simply let Shiro take what he needed. 

The only time they moved was for Adam to report to their commanders that they’d both be missing any practices the next day and to relocate them into the bedroom. Shiro allowed himself to be moved, not ready to face reality just yet.

He wasn’t certain what he would have done if Adam hadn’t been there. He wasn’t certain he would have fared anywhere near as well as he did, if it hadn’t been for Adam’s unwavering support. Looking back, one of Shiro’s biggest regrets would always be that he hadn’t told him that when he had the chance.

*****

Romelle was regretting every single life choice that had brought her to this moment. “Adventures are  _not fun_!”

The group were running as fast as their tiny legs could carry them in a desperate bid to escape the pursuing Yalmor. If they had the time to think about it, it was actually kind of impressive they were outrunning it, considering it had much longer legs then they did at the moment.

Not that they were thinking about that, not real deeply anyway.

Hunk spared her a look that screamed vindication. Finally! Someone who understood! “That’s what I’m always saying!”

The Yalmor came to an abrupt stop, irritated with the grass that was keeping it from it’s prey. With a sweep of it’s long nose, it gave the longer grass and impromptu mow. The pieces went everywhere, giving Team Voltron a first hand look at what falling grass looked like from the point of view of an ant.

The group scattered, desperate not to get over taken. Lance realized that he and Pidge were never going to out run piece coming down on them fast, and said so. “We’re never going to out run it!”

Pidge had already realized this and was darting off to the side. “Then run at an angle!”

Lance didn’t need to be told twice, following close on her heels and narrowly avoiding being caught.

Allura pointed up ahead of them. “There’s a hole in that rock up a head! We can escape in there!”

Unfortunately, their possible escape route was too shallow. It would do nothing to help them, especially if the Yalmor had a long tongue to go with its long nose and mouth. Insult to injury, the rock was a hinderance to their progress in their reduced state, as darting around the rock wasn’t an option.

They were trapped.

Putting their backs to the rock, they desperately searched the area for something,  _anything_ , that could be used to help them. Romelle moved closer to Allura and Coran in despair at finding nothing. The others weren’t doing much better.

Then, just as the Yalmor was coming in for the kill, Lance happened to look up and spot it: a large fruit or nut on the tree right above the Yalmor’s head. Thinking fast, he pulled his bayard and transformed it into his best, long range gun. Target locked on, he fired.

The shot rang true, hitting the thin stem holding the fruit-nut attached to the tree and dislodging it. It fell at just the right angle to come crashing down on the Yalmor’s head with a heavy sounding  _thunk_. 

The Yalmor stopped in its tracks, startled and in pain. The instinct to flee over took its need to chase its pray as it abruptly turned tail and fled. For a moment, they group thought their ordeal was over, but their little victory was cruelly stolen from them as the Yalmor’s retreat kicked up a puddle of water that might as well have been a tidal wave at their size and sent it right down on top of them.

What a way to go, Pidge thought sourly as she pushed off the offensive blade of grass. Either drowned by a puddle or crushed by a piece of grass.

“Is everyone alright?” Allura called, trying to get some of the larger debris out of her hair.

Around her, everyone groaned, either spitting out puddle water or trying to free themselves from pebbles or grass. What a sight they must have made. If only the Galra could see them now. Mighty Paladins of Voltron, indeed.

Pidge pulled up her communicator, trying to take advantage of their momentary reprieve to see if she could get through to their teammate. She had no clue how they would explain this, but if they could just get through to him-- “Keith! Do you copy? Krolia? Anyone!?”

Nothing. She was so sick of calling into the void and getting no response. Frustrated, she sprung to her feet and announced to the group: “The miniaturization must have caused our communicator’s range to drop exponentially.”

Hunk’s stomach dropped. “Wait, if we can’t get Keith to come to us…” 

Coran’s expression said it all. “We’ll have to walk back. There’s no telling how far it will be with how small we are.”

“What are we going to do??” Romelle fretted.

Allura held out her hands in a placating manner. “Everyone, please. Calm down.” Everyone turned to her, expressions at various levels of stressed out. “For now, let us take shelter and look at our options.” She smiled at them. “We’ve defeated Zarkon, Lotor, and everyone else who’s tried to kill us. We aren’t going to let a little thing like being shrunk do us in, are we?”

Four heads shook back and forth. Romelle still looked like she wanted nothing more than for this to be a crazy dream she could wake up from, but she was starting to calm down a little bit.

Having at least a short term plan, the group made to find somewhere to hide until they could figure out a more concrete long term plan.

*****

In the year that followed, he threw himself at every barrier between himself and his goal with a single minded determination bordering on reckless (but never quite). He knew when to push and when to pull back, the perfect mix to reach his goal in a few short years rather than sometime in the next decade.

The first time he was chosen for a mission that would take him off planet he’d been beyond ecstatic. He and Adam went out to celebrate with their friends, taking the town by storm. The months of preparations seemed to go by both at a crawl and in no time at all.

It was also the first time Shiro and Adam get a taste of long term separation. They kept in touch with messages tossed out into space. Shiro geeked out about getting to see the moon up close and personal. Adam told him all about getting his first teaching position and the madness the new wave of cadets brought with them.

The second and third time he was chosen took him away from Earth for longer periods of time. In the blink of an eye, another year was gone. He told himself it was all worth it. He may have had to wear a stimulator for his muscles by this point and had to completely change his exercises (again), but it had all worth it when he was chosen to lead his first mission into space. The fact that he would be the youngest pilot to do so was admittedly icing on the cake.

He’d thought Adam would be happy.

He hadn’t been.

“You’re going to get yourself killed.” It was said with an almost chilling amount of clinical detachment. Far more cold than anything Shiro had ever heard his partner say to him.

Shiro’s hands balled into fists, jaw clenched. “I know what I’m doing.”

“You’re being  _reckless_ , is what you’re doing.” Adam shook his head, throwing his hands up in frustration. “Don’t think I don’t know what this is about. I get it, I do. But you’re being reckless and you don’t seem to  _care_.”

It was tempting to fight. Fight this like he fought the assumptions the higher ups were starting to make about him because of his illness.

Instead, he rose from the couch. Adam tensed as Shiro wrapped his arms around him from behind, but he didn’t try to escape. Shiro rested his chin on his partner’s shoulder. “I promise I’ll be careful.” He tightened the hug, holding on while could. “I’ll come back.”

Adam caved, surrendering like he would surrender again and again on the subject. He saw Shiro off and answered every single one of Shiro’s calls over the months he was in space. Told him about getting promoted both to a teaching position and being assigned as leader of a squadron. Shiro told him about Mars and Jupiter and how they were so much better up close then in photos.

Shiro was so caught up in the joy of being in space and leading his first mission, he failed to notice that while Adam called him every chance he got, he never once called Adam.

*****

The sun was beginning to set and they still weren’t any closer to thinking up a way to unshrink themselves. At least they had found shelter inside a deep hole at the base of what might have been a mushroom. To help facilitate the drying off process and to keep warm, Coran and Hunk had made a little fire.

“What if we’re this  _quizacking_ size forever?” Romelle moaned, trying to not picture the rest of her life at the size of an leaf. They would have to build a new home and make new clothes for themselves. Not to mention dodge creatures suddenly so much bigger than themselves for the rest of their lives.

Hunk pulled his boot off, releasing a small torrent of water that had been trapped in it. “It’s ‘ _quiznaking_ _,_ ’ and yes, thank you, Romelle.” To the group at large he directed: “What if?”

Allura scooted closer to the blond, interest peeked. “Hunk, I don’t think it matters how she’s saying it. I just think it’s amazing that ‘quiznak’ has survived 10,000 years of language evolution.” She clapped her hands together. “When this is over, we really must see how much the Altean language has changed over the years.”

Both Romelle and Hunk gave her a dubious squint at how ‘fascinating’ language evolution could really be. Still, it wasn’t the most difficult thing Allura could have asked of her, so Romelle shrugged. They’d need something to pass the time once they were back in space.

“Coran, you said faunatonium expands gluon field fluctuations, right?” Pidge asked from where she was lounging against a leaf that had been propped up against the wall like a chair.

“Correct, it expands atomic distances.”

Pidge turned off her display. “Maybe we could use it to make ourselves bigger again.”

Coran crossed his arms, pondering this new idea. “You might be on to something.”

Lance may not have understood half of what Pidge was saying on a good day, but he could contribute here. “How are we going to find the faunatonium? We need the Yalmor to find this stuff, but at this size,” he gestured to them all as a whole, “We can’t exactly intimidate it.”

The Altean advisor fiddled with his mustache. “We might not have to.” At everyone’s confused looks, he added, “Don’t worry, everyone, I have a plan. All we need to do is lure the Yalmor back here!”

Romelle’s confusion gave way to skepticism. Her tone was nearly as dry as the desert. “Lure a Yalmor to us.” She indicated her smaller size with a sweep of her hands up and down. “Like  _this_?”

Hunk slide over to her on his back, the foot he was trying to dry still in the air and looking like it was his birthday. “It’s like I think it and you say it.”

Coran was undeterred by their lack of faith. “It will be incredibly dangerous, I’m not going to lie to you,” he said like this was some kind of high stakes mission and they all needed a pep talk. “And Hunk’s our only hope."

Hunk blinked at him. Why was Coran looking at him like that? He did not like the way Coran was looking at him like that. He already didn’t like this plan.

*****

Recruitment trips to the schools in the nearby areas became a norm in between missions. Shiro had done some before he’d left, but now he was the Garrison’s Golden Boy. Fame and skill were marketing tools and it looked good to send out their best. It helped that Shiro liked kids and was good with them. The higher ups were more than happy to throw him at the little hellions if it saved them from having to do it themselves.

There was never any telling what would turn up as a result of these trips. It wasn’t uncommon to turn up a couple of new recruits for the next semester who would make great additions to the Garrison, even if they didn’t make it into any position that took them into the air. Less common, but something that did occasionally happen, was that he didn’t turn up with anyone from a school. Maybe on the next trip, he’d promise.

Only once did he find a true diamond in the rough. A kid full of such raw talent, he was sure the little spitfire could run circles around every record Shiro had broken and break it  _faster_.

The kid drew his attention mostly with the way that he’d studiously pretended that he wasn’t interested in their visitor anymore than he was interested in a real simulator test disguised as a game. The boy had followed the rest of the team outside, but he had yet to go anywhere near the others.

“We’ve had some great tries,” he announced once the other children had taken a turn. “But no one has made it past the third level, yet.” He turned his attention on the boy. “Looks like you’re the only one who’s left.”

The boy jumped like he’d thought he’d been forgotten and was startled anyone was talking to him. Shiro initially chalked it up as the boy being shy.

“Think you’ve got what it takes?”

Turned out the kid did have what it took. Where no one had passed level three, forget level four, this kid made it to level five and cleared it without a single hitch. He had just started level six with no end to his progression in sight when the teacher approached Shiro with a data pad.

“I’ve compiled a list of students I think would make the best candidates for the Garrison.”

Shiro took the pad, browsing through it. It was a nice list with one of the better turnouts, if they all decided to go. It was only as he was going through the list to find the kid’s name that he realized he didn’t actually know it. “Is this guy on it?” He used his thumb to point at the kid in the seat who was actually well on his way to clearing level six. “He looks like he’s ready to pilot the real thing.”

The teacher’s expression turned sour under her stern expression. “Keith? He’s a bit of a discipline case.” She raised an eyebrow at the mere thought of the kid joining the Garrison. “I don’t think he’d necessarily fit in with the rigid Garrison culture.”

The woman’s blatant disregard for one of her own students threw him a bit. It even bordered on malice. While he knew it wasn’t uncommon for teachers to have favorites (he might have one or two of his own, he’d admit), he’d never seen a teacher actively sabotage one of their students before. He was still reeling as she tried to distract him with another student, James, she called him.

The sound of the simulator crashing caused everyone to jerk around in its direction. Shiro had just started to wonder where the kid ( _Keith, his name is Keith_ ) had gone, when he heard what was unmistakably the sound of his Garrison issued vehicle turning on. Sure enough, when he turned around, it was just in time to see it taking off.

Chatter broke out amongst the kids as they all thought this latest turn of events was downright  _insane_. The teacher stared, floored. “Was that your car?”

The vehicle had a tracker in it. The moment he made a call to the Garrison, it would only be a matter of time before it would be tracked down. That would be the end of it.

Most people would make the call and be done with it. Something felt wrong about all of this, however. Every instinct in Shiro’s body screamed it. The feeling was only cemented when the only expression on Keith’s face when he was finally pulled over and taken by the police was angry defiance poorly masking his resignation.

There was something much bigger going on here. The thought drove him to look into the kid’s records. Throughout the evening and well into the next day, Shiro had compiled the skeleton of a kid who had lost both of his parents (father: dead; mother: unknown) and was on the fast track to a life of delinquency. Stealing a military vehicle was the worst offense by far, but there was more than enough to send him to juvie until he was 18.

Underneath all of that, what stood out the most was that the kid had so much potential. He could to do anything he set his mind to. It would be a waste for him to be thrown away to justice system. 

More than that, it was obvious he was hurting. Nobody lashed out like that unless they were trying to protect themselves. Shiro knew walls when he saw them and Keith’s were a mile high and lined with barbed wire. He wasn’t certain if he (or anyone at the Garrison) could through to him, but Shiro had to try.

It took another day to talk the Garrison into dropping the charges. He had some leverage now that his name was famous, but it had still taken some push. Keith was going to be an amazing pilot. He aced the simulator and who knows how far he could have gone had he not stopped.

The higher ups caved. Shiro would be responsible for him. If he messed up, it wouldn’t just be Keith on thin ice.

Keith was out before dinner time the following day. He was confused and suspicious, but Shiro could tell he was also curious (and maybe a little desperate for positive interaction with anyone). Shiro left him with a card and a lure he hoped would be enough to get the kid to show up.

Adam found his partner later that night, setting his tray down and opening with: “So, when do I get to meet the kid we adopted?” 

Shiro choked.

Adam carried on as if his boyfriend weren’t potentially going to die because a piece of fruit had gone down the wrong pipe ( _thank you very much_ ). “And here I was enjoying just having the dorm to ourselves. Guess we’ll just have to move into the same room now.”

“We already live in the same room!” Shiro croaked out. He downed his drink in an attempt to help his cough. He glared at his partner who was sighing far too dramatically to be for real. “What are you talking about?”

Adam pointed at Shiro with his spoon. “Everyone is talking about you going down to the school a couple days ago and deciding to go all Batman on us and adopt the kid who stole your car.” He snorted, genuinely bemused. "Kid must have balls of steel or be completely insane.”

Shiro looked offended on Keith’s behalf. “He’s a smart kid. He just needs someone to stick around long enough to help him find his way again.”

All humor fell away from Adam’s demeanor, leaving sharp seriousness behind. “And what are you going to do if he bites the hand your offering him?”

“Keep believing in him until he beliefs in himself, if he’ll let me.” Shiro rand a hand down his face. “I don’t even know if he’s going to show or not tomorrow.”

Adam stared at him for a long moment, gauging him. Slowly, he nodded. “Just as long as this isn’t a charity case. That’s not what he needs right now.”

“All I want is to see him succeed. If not here, then somewhere else.” Shiro thought back to that simulator test and the sheer ease Keith had navigated through it. He really did have so much potential.

Adam backed off after that, agreeing that they could only wait and see what happened next. He may have still bemoaned the loss of their privacy upon returning to their dorm, which earned a pillow to the face.

The next morning, at exactly 0800 hours, Keith Kogane was waiting for him at Calypso's hanger. By noon, he was the Garrison’s newest cadet.

*****

If Hunk thought he didn’t like the plan  _before_  he heard what it entailed, it turned out he down right  _hated_  it when he actually heard it. It was a stupid plan, utterly ridiculous. No one would think this was a good plan.

Yet that did nothing to clear up how the  _quiznak_  he found himself dangling from a vine like some kind of enticing piece of meat just ready for the munching.

“WHY AM I THE BAIT? HOW COULD I POSSIBLY LET THIS HAPPEN?”

Up above, where the rest of the team where holding the other end of the vine, Coran leaned over the side of the tree branch, seemingly completely at ease with the fact that they were using a teammate as bait for a creature that had already expressed an interest in having them for dinner. “I told you, Hunk. You make the biggest meal and you scream the loudest.”

Lance, the traitor, nodded. “Sorry, bud, but he’s right. You do scream the loudest.”

“YOU’RE ALL EATING GOO FOR THE REST OF THE TRIP—” Hunk’s threat was cut off by the familiar call of one of those wretched Yalmor’s. Instinctively, the Yellow Paladin slapped both hands over his mouth in a desperate attempt to muffle any panicked noises.

“Now keep up that panicked yelling!” Coran encouraged, grin large as their target began to approach. “That’s what we need to attract the Yalmor!”

Hunk was absolutely  _not_  making anymore noises, thank you very much! If he survived this, he swore he was going to keep all the delicious food to himself and they could  _starve_  for all he cared! Some friends they were!

The Yalmor crept into the clearing he was dangling in, it’s trio of golden eyes all locked on the meal that had so helpfully been left out for it. Hunk’s blood pressure went through the roof. “Oh no, no no no no!” Forget the plan – it was a stupid plan. He was  _not_  going to get eaten today, he decided as he frantically tried to climb back up the vine to escape. 

Thankfully, it seemed his teammates weren’t complete traitors. He heard a shout of, “Now!” followed by the jerking feeling of going  _up_.

The Yalmor blinked in confusion as it chomped down on empty air. The tiny noisy morsel had been there a moment ago? Where had it gone?

In it’s distraction, it didn’t notice five tiny bodies landing on it’s head. Romelle was genuinely impressed the plan had worked. She’d had some major doubts there for a moment. “We have made if farther than seems possible.”

Up above them, now free of the vine they’d all let go of without think about it, gravity reasserted itself on Hunk, who proceeded to scream as he came down to join them on the Yalmor.

“This is going well.”

If Hunk hadn’t just landed on his head and was understandably dazed as a result of it, he would have groaned. That was just asking for something to go wrong.

As if in response to this, the Yalmor reared back and sniffed at the air. Whatever it smelled, sent it racing off, it’s tiny passengers forced to cling to it’s fur or be left in the dust.  

*****

It was a little touch and go at the beginning, but Keith slipped into Shiro’s (and by extention, Adam’s) life as if he had been there all along.

Shiro was all too happy to take him out after classes to give him hands on experience with the hover bikes. Keith’s delight over what the bikes could do was contagious and Shiro might have shown off just a little that first time they went out. Keith managed to do a great job of keeping up with him until he got to the cliff. While Shiro cleared it without hesitation, Keith understandably stayed behind.

Instead of being discouraged, Keith simply looked like he couldn’t wait to figure out how to do it himself. He was grinning like a loon when he finally figured out a way down the cliff nearly an hour later. “Alright! You won this round, but I’ll get you in the next race, old timer.”

Ah, to be young and under the belief that twenty-anything was old. Shiro missed those days. He laughed, good natured. “I don’t doubt it.”

Keith leaned back against his borrowed bike. “How’d you do that dive, anyway?”

Shiro had thought Keith would like that. It was half the reason he’d done it. “You like that one, don’t you? It’s all about timing.” He held his left hand up, mimicking the bike pulling up. “Pull up too soon and you won’t have the momentum to create lift.” He brought the hand down. “Too late, and you won’t have enough lift to avoid the crash.”

Keith hesitated, then asked, “You think I’m ready to try that?”

Shiro crossed his arms, raising an eye brow at him. “What do you think?”

The youth pondered it. He pulled a face, going from a cringe to something closer to amusement. “Maybe I should be patient and keep focusing on the basics first.”

There had never been any doubt that Keith could learn, but Shiro was glad he was taking his advice seriously. Keith could be impulsive sometimes and it was only a matter of time before he got in over his head. “You’re learning.” Shiro looked out into the desert. “So, you grew up out here?”

“Yeah, just me and my pop.” 

Keith didn’t sound distressed by the topic, but Shiro didn’t want to push. He gauged the boy’s body language, trying to spot any signs he was pushing. Shiro wanted to get Keith to open up to him, not send him running. “He was a fireman, right?”

The first sign of change – bitterness – started creeping in. “Yeah, he was a real hero.” When Keith laughed, it was humorless. “Everyone told him not to go back into that building, but you couldn’t tell him anything.”

Shiro tried to lighten the mood with a gentle, “Sounds like someone I know.” It seemed to work, but they were both distracted by the beeping warning of his wrist band. Without thinking about it, Shiro turned away to hide his grimace as the stimulator worked the muscles of his arm. 

It was too much to hope Keith hadn’t noticed. He was far too observant. “What are those?”

He could have told the truth, but that would have unnecessarily worried the teen. So, Shiro went with the half truth. “Oh, these are just some electro stimulators to keep my muscles loose.”

Keith caught the hesitancy. “What’s wrong with your muscles?”

Shiro persisted with the watered-down version of the truth. “Ah, nothing. It’s just what happens when you get to be an old timer.” He got onto his bike and started it up, more than happy to change the subject. “Come on, we should get back to the base.”

Keith dropped it for the time being, but Shiro really should have known that he wouldn’t let it go forever.

Adam took to the new addition in their lives with the same grace he took any curve ball that came at him. More than once, Shiro would come back to their dorm to hear about how Adam had taken Keith up with him on one of his flights. Adam wasn’t about to let him touch the controls until he was older, but Keith was likely going to be one of the most prepared cadets of his class by the time he graduated.

Both Shiro and Adam’s careers progressed, taking them one step closer to their dreams. Keith did well in his classes, but he never took to any of his classmates. His knee jerk reaction was to keep people at arm’s distance and he had a bit of a temper. Thankfully, after that first fight with James, there wasn’t another one. Shiro was glad their talk seemed to help settle Keith’s temper a bit ( _I will never give up on you. But more importantly, you can’t give up on yourself_ ). He just never seemed to get close to anyone other than Shiro and Adam.

Shiro and Adam had discussed it on numerous occasions, both between themselves and with a private councilor. The councilor had warned that this wasn’t something that could be pushed. All children reacted to the loss of both parents differently. Keith’s reaction was to attempt to push people away before they left him. All they could do for now was what they were already doing: being patient with him and showing him that people cared about him.

For a while, life was good.

And then the Kerberos mission was given the green light and everything fell apart.

*****

Hunk was wrong.  _This_  was the worst part of the plan. He didn’t know how much longer he was going to be able to hang on. “THIS IS WORSE THAN BEING BAIT.”

“Yes!” Romelle agreed. “At least then  _you_  were the only one in danger!”

Hunk glared at her as best he could, feeling betrayed. “Hey!”

Any further conversation was cut off as the Yalmor came to an abrupt stop, nearly sending them flying off. More than a few grunts resounded as their shoulders protested the harsh jerking.

The Yalmor they’d been hitching a ride on seemed to have found what it was looking for. It began to scratch almost frantically at the ground, only stopping when a purple, bubbly substance began to rise from the ground. Satisfied with whatever it had found, it threw its head back and bellowed out a call to any others nearby.

And there were others. Half a dozen Yalmors appeared, coming from all sides to join the first one around the little hole it had dug. 

Coran sat up, seeing the others joining it to dig more of the substance up as a potentially good sign. “Oh! This could be it! If they link at the ears, then we’re sitting on a faunatonium wizplute!”

The team watched, nearly on the edge of their perches, as the Yalmors continued to dig. As they sunk their noses into the ground to suck up the substance, the very thing they were hoping for happened.

They linked at the ears.

Team Voltron cheered. Coran turned to the others. “Pay attention, Paladins! This is how you work together!”

Pidge was so ready to get this party on the road and be unshrunk. “Alright! Let’s go!”

Twin protests of, “What,  _what_?” rang out from Hunk and Lance. Go where, exactly?

Pidge was already pivoting around to jump, even as she impatiently explained, “If we want to get to our regular size, we have to jump in there!”

Lance shrugged as Coran and Allura were right behind her. Anything was better than staying here. He jumped after them.

Romelle had some misgivings. She turned to the person who was supposed to be the reasonable one of the lot and asked, “Are we really going to do this?”

Hunk looked resigned. “Unless you want to stay like this.”

Romelle did not, but that didn’t make her any happier about leaping over the edge of the Yalmor’s head after him.

Of course, it wasn’t just a straight jump down. They had to first get off the Yalmor, which apparently meant treating it’s nose like a slid. Coran and the Paladins skid down like pros, while Romelle was lucky she didn’t just slid off the edge. They all screamed as they ran out of Yalmor, sending them into free fall right into the  _wizplute_.

Their fall was blessedly cut short, as one by one they all landed in one of the bubbles.

Being in the bubbles was an entirely different strange situation. It was like being energized and remade all at once. Not necessarily a bad feeling, just very, very odd. About as odd as suddenly finding themselves all at their original size in mid air.

The Yalmors nearly squeaked at they scrambled to get out of the way of the falling bodies, all tumbling on top of each other in a pile. Coran topped them off, the others breaking his fall.

At the bottom of the pile, Romelle could be heard muttering, “ _Quiznak_.” 

Hunk might have felt vindicated by her switch, if not for the fact that he was only one body higher in the pile. “My back.”

*****

“You seem happy about something.”

It was the night after Commander Holt had called Shiro into his office to give him the news about his determination if Shiro would be his pilot or not. Shiro had been nervous about it to the point he’d gotten little sleep. He’d eventually retreated to the couch to keep his tossing and turning from keeping Adam up. The news that he had been chosen had left Shiro on a high for the rest of the day. Adam knew him well enough that he could likely have guessed the outcome, but was opening the floor for Shiro to tell him.

Shiro reached into one of his drawers, and then pulled out a pair of loose pants to sleep in. Adam was already changed and curled up in bed with a book in hand. After a whirl wind of a day, between the news and classes, Shiro was more than ready to drop into bed himself.

“I was chosen for the Kerberos Mission.” He smiled, mood still elated. He was going to  _Pluto_  and  _Kerberos_. No one had ever gone that far before and if this mission was success, what this meant for Earth’s space programs would be unfathomable. And that wasn’t even taking into account what they could learn from the samples from Kerberos and what that meant for the scientific community.

“What did you tell him?”

Shiro felt it should be obvious. “I said, ‘yes’.”

It didn’t surprise him when something in Adam’s tone changed. “How long will you be gone?”

“Best case scenario?” Shiro took a deep breath. He steeled himself. “Three years.”

The silence behind him could have been a physical thing. Shiro knew – or at least, thought he knew – what Adam could potentially be upset about, so he had prepared an argument for this. “I know we planned to get married in the next couple years, but it’s only one more year--”

“You think I’m upset because we’re pushing our wedding off by one year?”

Some people might be. It was the only thing he could think of. Shiro turned to face his fiancé, honestly at a loss if that wasn’t it. 

It must have shown on his face, because Adam snapped his book closed and his expression darkened. “Takashi, I don’t care when we get married. It could be three years or a hundred years or never. I don’t need to put a ring on your finger to show that I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

The emotion that rose because of those words was complicated and confusing and did nothing to help clear things up. “Then why...?”

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose, nearly dislodging his glasses. “Did you even pause to consider talking to me before you said yes?”

“You know how much this means to me. It never occurred to me you would tell me not to go.” Shiro frowned at him. “Are you telling me not to go?”

Adam drew back like he’d slapped. “Of course not!” He sighed. “It doesn’t matter that I would have said yes. I’m upset you made a decision for both of us without talking to me. We’re supposed to a team, but you make these decisions that have impacts on our relationship without consulting me all the time.”

Guilt rose hot and sudden in Shiro’s chest as he realized Adam was right. They both had their own lives and careers, they made little decisions all the time, but this was a bit big. They both knew their careers could sometimes place delays on their plans, but Shiro recognized that in his drive to reach his goals while he could he sometimes forgot to give Adam a heads up on those decisions until afterword.

He wanted to approach the bed, but his partner’s body language screamed that he didn’t want to be touched. “Adam, I’m so sorry. How can I make this up to you?”

All the anger seemed to drain out of Adam’s expression, just leaving sadness. It only made Shiro feel worse. “I know you’re sorry. Just...” He waved in the direction of the door to their bathroom. “Go take your shower and give me a moment. I’ll be fine after that.”

The last thing Shiro wanted to do was leave, but it was such a small price to pay he couldn’t deny it. When Shiro returned, still chilled despite the warmth of the shower, Adam did seem to be better. Shiro was so grateful for Adam’s patience with him, he failed to wonder if that was too easy.

It turned out getting chosen for the Kerberos mission was the easy part. _Staying_  on the Kerberos mission over the months of preparations to come, on the other hand, would be an almost constant battle.

Iverson was a stubborn man, deeply set in his ways. He wanted the best for the mission and he’d found Shiro lacking. Shiro passed every test he put in front of him, but it never seemed to be  _enough_. Shiro doubted he ever could have made it onto that mission if it weren’t for the fact that Commander Holt was just as stubborn.

Eventually, Iverson stopped playing nice. He went over Commander Holt’s head to report the situation to Admiral Sanda. Apparently, she hadn’t been happy with what she’d heard and later cornered them in Shiro’s office, her stance cold. “This man is sick, and he shouldn’t be sent on another mission, especially as far away as Kerberos. I have to report this to the higher ups.”

Shiro could almost feel the opportunity slipping through his fingers. If she did this, it was over. He was so close and he was going to lose it.

Commander Holt wasn’t having it. “Shiro is the best pilot in the Garrison by far.” Shiro was blindsided, staring at his commander. He knew that Holt must have seen something in him, but he hadn’t realized he’d thought that highly of him. “He’s saved my bacon in deep space more times than I can count.” Holt’s tone grew just as cold and final as Sanda’s was. “If he doesn’t go on this mission, neither do I.”

Holt won this battle. Sanda wasn’t happy about it, but she knew the mission wouldn’t be a go without the commander and the higher ups really wanted this mission to happen. She allowed Shiro to stay on the mission, but she would be watching him like a hawk for any signs his illness was a danger.

By the time Shiro escaped his office and retreated to the officer’s lounge, he was more than ready for a break. He was happy to see Adam had also managed to find time to catch a break.

Adam frowned at the almost literal storm cloud following his partner into the room. “Everything okay?”

Shiro tried not to throw his bag onto the couch, before he dropped down onto it as well. He ignored the glances he got from the other officers on the computers. “Iverson thinks Sanda doesn’t think I should be part of the mission. Called in the big guns. Admiral Sanda showed up and tried to convince Sam to remove me from the crew.”

“Well, maybe he’s right. Maybe you shouldn’t go on the mission.” He picked up his cup, intending to continue drinking it while they carried on their discussion. “You’ll only be putting yourself at risk.”

It had been several weeks since their fight. Shiro’s latest physical had come back with positive news, but it had definitely confirmed that this was it. Adam had been concerned. Shiro continued to refuse to allow it to stop him. He should have expected this. “You know how important this is to me. It’s worth the risk!”

Something in Adam  _snapped_ , highlighted by the harsh crash of his cup hitting his plate. “Takashi, what do  _I_  mean to you?” His shoulders hunched as if he were physically pained. “Every mission, every drill, I’ve been right there with you.” He shook his head. “But this is more than a mission. This is your  _life_  at stake.”

“Don’t start that again, Adam.” Shiro was so tired of everyone thinking his disease made him fragile. He knew what was coming,  _he knew_ , but he wasn’t at that stage yet and he wished everyone would stop acting like he was. He slumped back against the couch, more tired than angry. “I don’t need you to protect me. This is something I need to do for myself.”

It was the wrong thing to say. “There’s nothing left for you to prove.” Shiro wanted to scoff – as if this was simply about proving anything – but held his tongue. “You’ve broken every record there is to break!” As quickly as the fire came, like always, it seemed to putter back out. Adam wasn’t the type hold onto his anger for long. Shiro might have taken advantage of it sometimes. 

This time, however, would not be like the others. There was something final in Adam’s tone that made that very clear. Shiro wondered how he’d missed this getting so bad. “I know I can’t stop you, but I won’t go through this again.” Adam stood up, his stance so terribly defeated. As if he already knew how this would go before he even said it.

“So if you decide to go… Don’t expect me to be here when you get back.” Adam grabbed his bag, nearly fleeing the room. “I have a class to teach.”

Shiro let him go, his mind a whirl wind. Anger was easy to go with. This was his  _dream_. Adam said he’d understood. Why was he doing this now? If he put this off, he’d never get another chance. There wasn’t anymore time.

But if he left, he’d lose Adam. He believed his fiancé (ex-fiancé?). When Adam said he’d do something, he would do it. Was going on this mission, was this one last go at the stars, worth losing the man he loved?

The war going on in his heart drove him to distraction. He didn’t have anywhere else to be for the day, this normally being when he’d be catching up on class work, so he retreated out to work on his bike. It was a task that would allow him to work with his hands, something he could do in his sleep. He needed the comforting task to  _think_.

It was a pity everyone was out to get him, it seemed. It was merely the icing on the cake when Keith stormed out of the building, shouting, “When were you going to tell me?”

Shiro wasn’t sure what he had done to anger Keith, but what with the way his day was going, he wasn’t surprised by it. Taking his annoyance with the way his day was going out on the teen wasn’t cool, however, so he bottled it all down and managed an easy going, “Oh, hey Keith.”

Oh, that didn’t look good. Keith had that look on his face whenever he was about to do something to sabotage something – namely the relationships around him. It wasn’t until he was face-to-face with it again, that Shiro realized he hadn’t seen this side of Keith in a while. What on Earth had caused it, though?

“So what is it?” Keith came to a stop several feet away from him, hands in his pockets, body deceptively lank. “Are you sick or something?”

Shiro got down from his perch. He had a sneaking suspicion he knew where this was going. The question was: how Keith had learned of his illness? Only a handful of people knew about it. So, who had told him? “I’m not sure I follow you—”

Keith cut him off. He’d been patient long enough. “I was outside your office. I over heard you and Commander Holt arguing with Admiral Sanda.”

Shiro felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. Ah, that was how. How much had Keith heard? Enough, it seemed.

Keith wasn’t done, however. “Tell me the truth. Tell me what’s wrong. I’m not a little kid. I can handle it!”

Oh, Keith. Shiro sighed. It seemed it was finally time. He told Keith the truth, telling him the short version. He hadn’t wanted Keith’s opinion of him to change, but lying to him was no longer an option. Not if he wanted to avoid completely alienating Keith. “The Garrison doesn’t want me up there. Neither does Adam.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

And there it was, the million dollar question. It ran circles in his mind, every time coming back to the same result. He was so selfish, but he had to do this.

“I’m going on the mission.”

*****

The double doors to the Black Lion’s inner hanger slid open, allowing the returning Paladins and allies to hear Krolia saying, “And it went  _everywhere_. Is this normal of human infants?”

Shiro, the person she was asking the question, was laughing good naturedly. His normal hand was patting Keith’s back sympathetically. Keith himself had his face buried in the bed sheets in what looked like an attempt to smother himself. The tips of his ears, only just barely visible through his hair, were beet red.

At the sound of the doors opening, he shot up and twisted around to see who was entering. When he saw it was them, he gave them a look of pure horror. “Save me,” he pleaded. “I’ve made a mistake. I never should have let them meet.”

Lance was extremely suspicious they were exchanging embarrassing baby or childhood stories. Normally he would be all over that plan of action, but poor Keith looked like he was going to have an aneurysm. Since Lance didn’t actually hate him and he liked the idea of having Keith owe him a favor, he turned his attention to Shiro. “Hey, you’re looking better.”

Shiro smiled at him, accepting the sentiment. “We were just about to see if we could raise you on the com.” His eyes ticked to each of them, tacking stock of everyone. There was a hint of relief behind his gaze when he accounted for everyone. “We hadn’t heard from you in a while.”

Lance waved off his concern. “We were held up because we were shrunk by a magic skunk. Then we had to find some that sparkly dust that makes electricity bigger to, well, unshrink ourselves.” He grinned at them, victorious. “So, ready to charge up the lions?”

Shiro and Keith both stared at them, totally believing he was telling the truth but baffled as to  _how_  they’d gotten themselves into that predicament. Helplessly, Shiro chuckled and shook his head at them. He’d missed his team, even their shenanigans.

To the everyone in the room, he said, “Alright everyone, let’s get that faunatonium to the lions. I don’t know about you, but I am ready to go home.”

A round of cheers followed the proclamation. Finally, they could this road trip on the road.

-tbc


End file.
